A journalist and head of an anti-government news site in Senegal was arrested by police in Dakar on Sunday, an association of press organizations and a police source told AFP. Pape Alé Niang, who runs the private news site Dakar Matin, is famous in Senegal for his regular chronicles of the news.
He was arrested but “the reason remains unknown at the moment,” according to a press release from the Coordination of Press Associations (CAP), which brings together local press organizations. She wanted to “provide all the necessary assistance” to the journalist and had hired “a lawyer” to defend him. The arrest was “confirmed,” a police source told AFP news agency, without giving a reason.
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“Police Brutality”
The journalist was at the premises of the central police station in Dakar on Sunday, according to the police source and local media. In addition, a videographer from the information site Buur News, Fatou Dione, was the victim of “police violence” during a banned demonstration in Dakar on Saturday, the CAP criticized in a press release. The journalist “fainted when the police came to evacuate her with incredible brutality,” the CAP added.
Twenty people arrested on Saturday afternoon during the demonstration banned by the Dakar Prefect were still in custody, according to the press on Sunday. The demonstration, initiated by a collective made up mainly of activists, aimed to demand the release of “political prisoners”, people who have been imprisoned for several weeks and have been portrayed in the press as pro-opposition. In the world press freedom rankings compiled by the NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in 2022, Senegal ranked 73rd out of 180 countries.