DAKAR (AFP) — Recent comments by the Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade and other senior politicians suggest they want to increase censorship, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Wednesday.
"The repeated scathing comments about the independent media can only aggravate the climate of hostility between the press and government," RSF Africa said in a statement from Dakar.
"We urge the Senegalese authorities to respect the work of the media and allow the media regulatory body to do its job," it added.
The group cited comments by Wade during a recent visit to the United States, when asked about the police beating of two journalists in Senegal following a football match in June.
Asked if he was prepared to condemn the attack, he blamed the journalists for the incident and went on to suggest that most journalists were corrupt, said RSF.
The group also mentioned a call by Air Transport Minister Farba Senghor for members of the ruling PDS party members to boycott pro-opposition media.
Senghor, a close ally of president Abduolaye Wade and a leading PDS member, made the comments during on a news broadcast on Senegal's RTS state television.
RSF said he had also called on government and state-owned enterprises to suspend all advertising contracts with such media.
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