Senegal cops 'beat up' journos
2008-07-15 14:57
Dakar - Journalists and unions in Senegal on Tuesday called for a "News Blackout" day to publicise a call for action against police officers who allegedly beat up two reporters at a football match.
The protest, scheduled for Monday July 21, would stop all transmission of TV and radio broadcasts, and halt publication of daily newspapers.
The planned day of action came after the assault on two journalists by police officers at the Senegal-Liberia football match on June 21.
Boubacar Kambel Dieng, head of sport at Radio Future, and Karamoko Thioune, of West Africa Democracy Radio (WADR), accused the police of violently beating them at the match.
Dieng subsequently spent 20 days recovering an private hospital in the capital, Dakar. Several marches in protest at the men's treatment had been held, both in Dakar and across the country.
Following a complaint from Dieng's lawyers, the prosecutor of the regional court in Dakar opened a judicial inquiry into "assault, acts of torture and obstructing the right to work", on July 08.
Senegal's Interior Ministry absolved the police of blame in a statement on July 10, accusing Dieng of having "provoked the confrontation by punching a ranking police officer" and shouting abuse at the police.
The statement from the Committee for the Protection and Defence of Journalists "calls on all information and communication professionals to respect this command: stop broadcast of TV and radio and publication of newspapers".