Journalist Jailed For Spreading Fake News, Contempt Of Court

A journalist from a private Senegalese television station was charged with "contempt of court" and "spreading false news" and jailed on Tuesday night, his lawyer said in a statement on Wednesday. 

Pape Ndiaye, a Wal Fadjri columnist, recently questioned the independence of the judiciary in the January 18 referral to a criminal chamber of the opponent, Ousmane Sonko, accused of rape by a beauty salon employee.

According to the journalist, the majority of the judges of the public prosecutor's office decided to dismiss Sonko's case, despite the advice of the public prosecutor, who told them to fulfil the government's wish for a trial of the opponent.

"The information (on the indictment and imprisonment of Pape Ndiaye) is accurate," Moussa Sarr, his lawyer, told news media on Wednesday, confirming information provided by the Coordination of Press Associations (CAP), a trade union confederation.

The charges against the journalist are "provocation of a gathering, contempt of court, intimidation, and reprisals against a member of the judiciary, discrediting a judicial act, dissemination of false news, endangering the lives of others," according to Sarr.

For at least two years, Senegal has been tense over the Sonko case. In the complaint of the employee of the beauty salon where he was getting a massage, the opponent was charged with rape and death threats and was placed under judicial supervision in March 2021.

He denounced the government's plot to derail his presidential candidacy in 2024.

After Pape Alé Niang, Pape Ndiaye is the second journalist imprisoned in Senegal in recent months.

This government critic and journalist from the news website Dakar matin was arrested twice in November and December for, among other things, "disclosing information likely to harm the national defence" and "spreading false news" both about the Sonko case. Since then, he has been placed under judicial supervision.

Senegal is ranked 73rd (out of 180) in the world press freedom index compiled by the journalists' rights organization Reporters Without Borders for the 2022 edition.