The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes Thursday’s release on bail of Nigerian journalist Saint Mienpamo Onitsha and calls for authorities to drop all charges against him and reform the country’s laws to ensure journalism is not criminalized.

“Saint Mienpamo Onitsha was detained for nearly four months simply for doing his job, which should never be considered a crime,” said CPJ Africa Head Angela Quintal in New York. “While we welcome Thursday’s release of Onitsha, we repeat our call for Nigerian authorities to swiftly drop all charges against him and reform the country’s laws to ensure journalists do not continue to be jailed for their reporting.”

In October 2023, police arrested Ontisha, founder of the privately owned online broadcaster NAIJA Live TV, and charged him with cyberstalking under section 24 of Nigeria’s Cybercrimes Act and defamation under the criminal code. The charge sheet cited a September report about tensions in the southern Niger Delta region.

On December 4, a court in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, heard Onitsha’s bail application and on January 25 the court granted him bail with a condition that he provides two sureties – persons willing to take responsibility for any court decisions made if Onitsha fails to meet bail obligations – with a bond of 10 million naira (US$8,372), according to copies of the court ruling, reviewed by CPJ, and Onitsha’s lawyer, Anande Terungwa, who spoke by phone with CPJ.

The court also ordered the residence of the sureties must be verified by the court registrar and that the sureties must submit documents proving they own a landed property in Abuja, as well as their recent passport photographs, according to those same sources.

Onitsha’s next court date is March 19. If convicted, he faces a 25 million naira (US$20,930) fine and/or up to 10 years in jail on the cyberstalking charges—as well as potential imprisonment for two years for charges of defamation and the publication of defamatory matter under the Criminal Code Act, according to Terungwa and a copy of the charge sheet reviewed by CPJ.

Terungwa told CPJ that the delay between Onitsha being granted bail on January 25 and his release on February 1 was due to a prolonged verification process among officials and prosecution lawyers on the conditions of Onitsha’s bail.

Onitsha appeared in CPJ’s 2023 prison census, which documented at least 67 journalists jailed across Africa as of December 1.

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The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) strongly condemns the suspension of Walf TV on February 4, 2024, and calls on the Senegalese authorities to lift the suspension.

Walf TV’s Director, Cheikh Niasse, read in part the order to shut down from the government. Niasse gave the information during a special programme dedicated to the demonstrations against the postponement of the presidential election that was scheduled for February 25, 2024.

The order said the Ministry of Communication, “in agreement with the Conseil national de régulation de l’audiovisuel (CNRA), has ordered the broadcasters of Walf TV to temporarily cut the signal on the grounds of incitement to violence.”

Viewers can since not access Walf TV on DTT and Canal+, a leading operator of pay television in French-speaking Africa.

Clashes broke out on February 4, 2024, in Dakar between security forces and demonstrators protesting against the unprecedented postponement of the presidential election announced the day before by the Head of State, Macky Sall, amid a highly explosive atmosphere.

Besides its suspension on February 4, 2024, Walf TV is now under the threat of a permanent license withdrawal. This move by the Senegalese government is viewed by journalists and media experts as another severe blow to press freedom in the country.

The government also shut down the internet as Senegalese poured into the streets to protest the postponement of the elections.

In a statement, on its Facebook page, journalists’ union Syndicat des Professionnels de l’Information et de la Communication du Sénégal (SYNPICS), strongly condemned the interruption of Walf TV’s signal.

“Walf TV, like all the country’s television channels, is entitled to hold a special programme on the country’s political and institutional situation, marked by the suspension of the electoral process decided by the President of the Republic on Saturday. This suspension is all the more alarming in that it comes without any of the ‘formal notice’ procedures laid down in the Press Code, and without any objective complaint being made against the television station’s management. Neither was it carried out by the competent administrative authority,” SYNPICS stated.

The channel was suspended for a week on February 10, 2023, for broadcasting scenes of violent demonstrations. The media regulator, the Conseil national de régulation de l’audiovisuel (CNRA), alleged that the channel had provided irresponsible coverage of demonstrations.

In March 2021, the CNRA also suspended the channel’s programmes for three days, alleging that it had repeatedly broadcasted images of an unrest that followed the arrest of political opponent Ousmane Sonko.

Apart from the media being suspended, its journalists were also targeted. On November 13, 2023, officers with the gendarmerie’s Colobane research section in Dakar arrested Pape Sané for allegedly spreading false news under Article 255 of the Senegalese penal code. Sané was arrested after a Facebook post in which he criticised the sacking of the Commander of the gendarmerie, General Jean Baptiste Tine. The commander was fired in March 2021 after demonstrations over the arrest of the Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko.

Pape Ndiaye, a legal columnist for Walf TV, was arrested on March 3, 2023, following comments he made about the alleged rape case involving opposition leader Ousmane Sonko and a certain Adji Sarr, the complainant in the rape case.

These arrests and the latest suspension of Walf TV, the third in about three years, confirm the growing perception that the critical media organisation is targeted by the authorities. Such actions undermine the fundamental principles of democracy, as a free press is essential for an informed citizenry and a transparent political process. It is our opinion that the government’s move against Walf TV violates not only the rights of journalists but also the public’s right to access diverse sources of information.

The MFWA is deeply concerned about the widespread repression of freedom of expression in Senegal and joins the media in Senegal to condemn this umpteenth attempt.

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The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) strongly condemns the suspension of media umbrella organisation, Maison de la Presse, and calls on the Nigerien authorities to reverse its decision.

The Maison de la Presse in Niger was suspended and barred from engaging in any activities within the country until further notice, as communicated in a statement dated January 29, 2024 by the Ministry of the Interior, General of Brigade Mohamed Toumba. The communication offered no explanation for the suspension but rather announced the establishment of an ad hoc committee, comprised of individuals appointed by the government, to oversee the umbrella organisation.

The suspension came a month after the Ministry of Interior barred the organisation from holding its general assembly to elect new Board of Directors. The Ministry cited petitions it had received from some member associations of the Maison de la Presse, in which the petitioners complained about alleged improper conduct by the Board.

The president of the Maison de la Presse, Ibrahim Harouna, told the MFWA that the suspension is unfortunate, especially when the media is facing challenges that the Maison de la Presse has, and is, involved in helping to resolve. He said he has personally been accused of raising a false alarm about press freedom repression in the country.

In November 2023, during the celebration of National Press Freedom Day, organised by the Maison de la Presse, the minister for Communication, Post and the Digital Economy, Sidi Mohamed Raliou rejected all accusations regarding press freedom violations in Niger. Describing such reports as unpatriotic, Mr. Raliou reprimanded Ibrahim Harouna. In what is chilling evidence that the government has been monitoring his movements and engagements, the minister cited Harouna’s remarks during a conference in Ghana.

The MFWA views the Niger government’s action as a dangerous precedent and untenable. It is for the members and member organisations of the Maison de la Presse to decide who and how to run the institution. For the Government to constitute an interim Board for the Maison de la Presse, which is not an agency of the state, after several criticism of leadership, is a clear case of vendetta and an attempt to choose “obedient” leaders for the organisation. The action confirms the very accusations that press freedom is under repression; the same accusation that the government is vehemently denying.

We call for the lifting of the suspension of the Board as well as the interdiction of the general assembly to enable the outgoing Board organise elections.

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MISA Malawi is deeply concerned about threats against Platform for Investigative Journalism (PIJ) Editorial Director Gregory Gondwe.

Gondwe is currently in hiding, on advice from military sources, following his exposé on the payments that the Malawi Defence Force (MDF) made to businessman Zuneth Sattar, a fraud suspect under the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) probe.

“This isn’t just about legal threats, which I was prepared to face head-on. Yesterday, top government officials confirmed that the MDF intended to ‘arrest’ me for allegedly ‘endangering state security’ – a vague and ominous accusation.”

“Given the potential for my situation to be ‘accidentalised’ with a seemingly plausible explanation posthumously, I’ve heeded the advice to protect myself. In this line of work, death can be disguised as an accident, and no hospital can revive a life once lost,” Gondwe wrote on his Facebook Page.

MISA Malawi engaged the Army Commander General Paul Velentino Phiri and the Attorney General (AG) Honourable Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda on the matter and they have both assured us that there are no plans to arrest Gondwe or intimidate him for writing the story. We hope and trust that these assurances are true and sincere.

We would like to remind government bodies and all citizens that threats on journalists are retrogressive and a threat to democracy.

We believe that if the MDF or any other concerned parties have an issue with the media, they should use proper channels to raise such issues, but military interrogations and threats are not among those channels.

The threats on Gondwe’s life have a chilling effect on journalists and the media fraternity. As a democracy, Malawi should not slide back to the era of heavy-handedness on media and critical voices.

We will continue engaging the leadership at MDF and the office of the Attorney General to ensure the safety of Gondwe and a free and conducive media operating environment.

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The Committee to Protect Journalists on Wednesday expressed alarm at reports that Dieudonné Niyonsenga had been tortured in a Rwandan prison and called on authorities to unconditionally release the journalist, who is serving a seven-year sentence.

During a January 10, 2024, hearing at the court of appeal in the capital Kigali, Niyonsenga said that he was held under “inhumane” conditions in a “hole” for three years and was frequently beaten, according to media reports and court documents reviewed by CPJ. Niyonsenga, who also goes by Cyuma Hassan, appeared in court with a head wound and said that his hearing and vision were impaired by the conditions of his detention, according to those sources. Niyonsenga’s lawyers also told the court that prison officials seized documents he needed to further prepare his case.

“Dieudonné Niyonsenga was convicted following a trial whose irregularities exposed the political nature of his prosecution. Now Rwandan authorities compound the injustice by mistreating him behind bars and frustrating his efforts to have his case reviewed,” said CPJ sub-Saharan Africa Representative, Muthoki Mumo. “Authorities should unconditionally release Niyonsenga, investigate his painful testimony of torture and detention under hellish conditions, and hold those responsible to account.”

The court postponed the case until February 6 to give Niyonsenga, who is seeking review of what he terms an unfair trial, more time to consult his lawyers.

Niyonsenga published commentary and news reports on the YouTube channel Ishema TV,  which is no longer available online, and was initially arrested in April 2020, following allegations that he had breached Rwanda’s COVID-19 stay-at-home order, the Rwanda Investigation Bureau said at the time in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. He was later tried on charges of forging a press card, impersonating a journalist, and hindering the implementation of government-ordered work as well as humiliating authorities. The latter is a crime repealed in Rwanda in 2019, as CPJ has documented.

Niyonsenga was acquitted and freed in March 2021. However, he was convicted on those same charges in November 2021 and taken into state custody after prosecutors appealed, according to CPJ’s documentation. Shortly afterwards Rwanda’s National Prosecution Authority posted on X, saying that Niyonsenga’s prosecution on the repealed charge of humiliating authorities was an “error” that it would appeal to have corrected.

In March 2022, an appeal court upheld Niyonsenga’s conviction on charges of forgery and impersonation but overturned the conviction on humiliating authorities, according to media reports and court documents reviewed by CPJ. The court did not make any specific pronouncement on the charge of obstruction, according to the court documents.

CPJ’s January 31 emails to the Rwandan ministry of justice and correctional services had not received any responses by publication time.

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Guarantee fundamental freedoms, end arbitrary detentions and prosecutions

• The authorities in Senegal have cracked down on the opposition, media, and civil society.
• President Macky Sall’s promise to hold free and fair elections is at odds with the reality that the authorities have been filling prisons for the last three years with hundreds of political opponents.
• The authorities should effectively investigate all security force violence, release people arbitrarily detained, and guarantee the rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly.

The authorities in Senegal have cracked down on the opposition, media, and civil society, ahead of general elections scheduled for February 25, 2024, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should effectively investigate all violence by the security forces, release people arbitrarily detained, including on politically motivated grounds, and guarantee the rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly, essential to genuinely free and fair elections.

A crackdown began in 2021 over court cases involving prominent opposition leader Ousmane Sonko and over concerns about whether President Macky Sall would run for a third term, but there has been a spate of arrests of political opposition figures and dissidents in recent months.

According to civil society groups and opposition parties, up to 1,000 opposition members and activists have been arrested across the country since March 2021. Seventy-nine people have submitted requests to the Constitutional Council to be presidential candidates, including Amadou Ba, Senegal’s current prime minister and member of the ruling coalition, and Sonko, a jailed opposition leader and head of the dissolved political party African Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics, and Fraternity (Patriotes africains du Sénégal pour le travail, l’éthique et la fraternité, PASTEF). Only 20 have survived the Council’s vetting process. Sonko’s candidacy was rejected on grounds that he was sentenced to 6 months in prison by the Senegalese supreme court for defamation against a minister. Sall is not running for a third term.

“President Macky Sall’s promise to hold free and fair elections is at odds with the reality that the authorities have been filling prisons for the last three years with hundreds of political opponents,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The authorities should ensure that all Senegalese are able to freely express their views and exercise their vote fairly and peacefully.”

Between November 2023 and January 2024, Human Rights Watch interviewed in person and by telephone 34 people, including 9 opposition party members, 13 members of Senegalese civil society groups, 6 journalists, 2 university professors, 3 Senegalese lawyers, and 3 relatives of activists. Human Rights Watch also reviewed reports by national and international media outlets, photographs showing one protester’s injuries as a result of torture in June 2023 and his medical records, and a video showing gendarmes torturing a protester, also in June.

On January 9, Human Rights Watch sent an email to Julien Ngane Ndour, director of the Justice Ministry’s Human Rights Division, sharing its findings and requesting responses to specific questions. Human Rights Watch did not receive a response.

Waves of arrests started in 2021 following violent protests linked to court cases involving Sonko, and over the prospect that President Macky Sall might run for a third term. Security forces have targeted leaders, members, and supporters of Sonko’s party. Sonko was most recently arrested on July 28 on charges of fomenting insurrection, undermining state security, creating serious political unrest, and criminal association, among others. Bassirou Diomaye Faye, PASTEF’s secretary general, has been in detention since April 14, facing similar charges connected to a message criticizing magistrates he posted on his Facebook page.

“Criticizing officials is not a crime and no one should face prison time for doing so,” said Faye’s lawyer. On July 31, Senegal’s interior minister announced the dissolution of PASTEF on the grounds that it had allegedly rallied supporters during violent protests in June 2023 and March 2021.

“Our leadership is in jail, our supporters are in jail, many of us are on provisional release or are monitored electronically like me,” said El Malick Ndiaye, head of communications for PASTEF, arrested on March 22 for allegedly spreading false news and acts likely to jeopardize public security. That day, he published a message on his Facebook page alleging that an individual in police uniform sprayed Sonko with an unknown substance. “The government is trivializing the practice of arrest and doing everything to silence us,” he said.

The authorities have used the judicial system to target political opponents and dissidents. Lawyers representing those arrested in connection with opposition-led protests expressed concerns over the lack of respect for due process rights of their clients, including trumped up charges, lack of evidence to substantiate charges, prolonged pretrial detention, and ill-treatment and torture in detention or upon arrest.

“The prosecutor wrongly codifies the offense in order to request an arrest warrant and rejects any request for provisional release of detainees,” said Moussa Sarr, a prominent human rights lawyer who is representing pro bono hundreds of detained protestors. “So it happens that people who participate in an unauthorized demonstration are not being prosecuted for participating in an unauthorized demonstration, but for criminal association. The offense charged is no longer the legal consequence of the acts committed.”

Human Rights Watch has previously documented security forces’ use of excessive force, including live ammunition and improper use of tear gas, to disperse thousands of protesters across the country in March 2021 and June 2023. At least 37 people have been killed during violent clashes since March 2021 and there has been no accountability. “Young people died, and their families are yet to see any justice done,” said Alioune Tine, a prominent Senegalese human rights activist and founder of the research organization AfrikaJom. “The failure by our authorities to bring to book errant security officers will only encourage them to continue.”

The March 2021 violent protests led Senegalese authorities, citing the need to protect public security, to restrict freedom of assembly by prohibiting public gatherings, meetings, and protests. On December 29, 2023, local authorities in the capital, Dakar, banned a December 30 meeting at which Sonko was to be nominated to run for president, citing a threat to public order.

“For two years authorities have rejected almost all requests from civil society organizations and political parties to demonstrate,” said Moundiaye Cissé, executive director of the civil society organization 3D. “The right to freedom of assembly is a cornerstone of democracy, we fought for it, it cannot be taken away from us.”

Some candidates have said they were prevented from collecting signatures, which are required to place their name on the ballot. On October 28, Khalifa Sall, leader of the Taxawu party and a presidential candidate, said the police stopped his 30-vehicle convoy for several hours, preventing it from entering the Fatick region, southeast of Dakar, where he was supposed to collect signatures. The police said that the convoy had not been authorized.

“We did not need any authorization,” said Moussa Taille, Taxawu’s spokesperson. “The law provides for any candidate to collect his sponsorships. Ahead of the vote, the government is trying to restrict the rights of opponents.”

Journalists said that since 2021, they have experienced increased pressure from government agents and security forces while doing their work, as well as arbitrary arrests and intimidation. Dozens of journalists have been arbitrarily arrested, threatened verbally, and physically assaulted. Media outlets have been suspended and the authorities have imposed arbitrary restrictions to mobile internet access and social media.

In a January 8 statement, the European Union announced that, at the invitation of Senegalese authorities, it will deploy an electoral observation mission to Senegal on February 25.

International human rights law, including regional law such as the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, prohibits arbitrary detention. Any charges authorities bring must be provided for in law, cover activity that is legitimate to sanction, and be supported by credible evidence that fits the offense. Those detained have a right to be informed of the grounds for their arrest, to challenge their detention before an independent and impartial judge, not to be arbitrarily denied bail, to have access to a lawyer and family members, and to have their case periodically reviewed. International human rights law also guarantees the right to freedom of assembly and expression and prohibits excessive use of force by law enforcement officials as well as detention in inhumane and degrading conditions.

“As Senegal heads to the polls, the stakes for its democracy are high,” Allegrozzi said. “Senegalese authorities should initiate impartial, independent, and effective investigations into all cases of use of force by security forces throughout the pre-election crisis and ensure that security forces respect the right to demonstrate peacefully.”

For detailed accounts of the abuses and other details, please refer to HRW’s press release

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The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) strongly condemns the threats issued against journalist Babacar Fall and calls on the Senegalese authorities to investigate them and prosecute the perpetrators.

On January 10, 2024, Babacar Fall, Editor-in-chief of the radio station RFM, received a flood of messages and calls from unknown individuals threatening his life.

“You’d better stop these comments. Otherwise, we will kill you,” a voice note sent to Fall and reviewed by the MFWA threatened. Another message read “this message is not a warning. I’ll take you out when I see you.”

Fall is reported to have received not less than 120 of such messages from unknown individuals, some of which were insults, while others were threats in which the perpetrators promised to make attempts on the journalist’s life.

The journalist’s ordeal started a few minutes after he criticized, live on RFM, President Macky Sall’s opening speech at the 50^th Edition of the International Francophone Press Union conference held on January 9, 2024. In his speech, President Macky Sall stated that “Press reviews in Senegal are just for show. They have no facts, and public opinion is manipulated all day long.”

Fall, in his broadcast, defended the media whose image, he deemed, had been tarnished at such an important international gathering. The journalist equally described President Macky Sall’s governance as “catastrophic.”

The threats to his life and the insults led the journalist lodging a complaint. However, there have not been any positive developments since then.

The Coordination des associations de Presse (CAP), a media coalition, expressed its full support and solidarity with Babacar Fall. The CAP equally urged the authorities to guarantee Fall’s safety and to open an investigation as soon as possible in order to identify and bring to justice the perpetrators of these unjustified threats.

The Media Foundation for West Africa is extremely concerned about the safety of Babacar Fall. We call on the political parties and their partisans to respect the freedom of expression of divergent voices.

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The military authorities in Guinea must release Sekou Jamal Pendessa, Secretary General of the Syndicat des Professionnels de la Presse de Guinée (SPPG), and take steps to end the wave of repression against the media in the country.

Pendessa was arrested in town on January 19, 2024 and driven to the gendarmerie investigation brigade in Kipé, where he spent his first night in detention. After a lengthy preliminary examination, the High Court in Dixin charged him with unauthorised demonstration and publication of data likely to undermine public order and security. He has since been in Conakry’s central prison.

The charges against Pendessa stem from his call to demonstrate against the government for serial violation of public and individual freedoms, including press freedom and access to information. On January 18, 2024, the journalist and union leader launched a call to take to the streets to demand the lifting of restrictions on Internet access and the restoration of the country’s suspended private radio and television stations. Nine journalists were arrested by security forces who also laid siege on the Maison de la Presse (the social and office complex of media organisations) to scuttle the coordination of the planned protest.

Salifou Béavogui, the lawyer defending the trade unionist journalist, said: “These are offences that have been brought against him and that he has not admitted. This is a freedom that has just been confiscated because he should not have been taken to prison.”

The Minister of Justice and Human Rights, Charles Alphonses Wright, however insists that Pendessa has a case to answer for promoting lawlessness.

“Respect for justice is non-negotiable. But for those who don’t know, no one has a monopoly on disorder in a state, whatever profession they practice. No one can claim to exert pressure on the justice system to do what you think should be done. So it will be the magistrates who decide what they consider to be in accordance with the law”, the Minister told journalists at the Dixin courthouse.

The battle that Pendessa and his colleagues are waging for the full enjoyment of freedom of expression and press freedom is not an easy one, given the difficult context in which the media operate in Guinea.

Internet access has been severely restricted in the country for several weeks. The authorities have also imposed restrictions on social networks, while private radio and television stations have been cut off. News websites have also been targeted and have become inaccessible, except via virtual private networks. The authorities also banned all demonstrations in 2022 and warned against any repeat attempts.

These are the repressive measures against which the SPPG had called on its members and the public to protest on January 18, leading to the arrest of nine journalists, followed by the Secretary General of the journalists’ union.

Meanwhile, Guinea’s national trade union congress (CNTG) has called an emergency general meeting for January 24, to decide on the appropriate response, according to Abdoulaye Cisse, Director of Communication of SPPG who spoke on a messaging App with the MFWA.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) strongly condemns the detention of Sekou Jamal Pendessa and urges that he be released. We further urge the junta in Guinea to end the recent blitz of repression against the media. Peaceful demonstrations, even if unauthorized, should not be criminalised in any country which claims to uphold fundamental human rights.

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Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has found spyware traces on the phones of two Togolese journalists currently on trial in a defamation case brought by a government minister. The traces are typical of Pegasus, the spyware used by Togo’s government until 2021 at least. One of the journalists was subjected to a major cyber-espionage operation throughout the first half of 2021. RSF calls on the authorities to explain.

It was serial espionage. Evidence of at least 23 spyware intrusions between 1 February and 10 July 2021 were identified on one of the phones used by Loïc Lawson, the publisher of Flambeau des Démocrates, a leading independent weekly in Togo. Freelance journalist Anani Sossou was the target of a similar attack on his phone a few months later, on 25 October 2021.

After several months of investigation, this was the conclusion of the technical analyses conducted by Digital Security Lab, an RSF forensic service for journalists that detects digital attacks on their phones.

The intrusions into the phones of these Togolese journalists were carried out by means of Pegasus, one of the world’s most powerful and effective spywares. It is sold by NSO Group, an Israeli company of which the Togolese government was a proven client at the time. The findings of RSF’s technical analyses were independently confirmed by Amnesty International’s Security Lab, which has identified many cases of Pegasus surveillance around the world and is regarded as a leading authority in this field.

Timeline of intrusions between 1 February 2021 and 1 August 2021 in one of Loïc Lawson’s phones, based on one of the intrusion indicators found by analysts

RSF began taking an interest in Lawson and Sossou’s phones at the start of December, when they had just spent 18 days in pre-trial detention as a result of a complaint by Kodjo Adedze, the minister of urban planning, housing and land reform, solely because they reported that the equivalent of 600,000 euros in cash had been stolen from his home.

Although the minister simply disputed the amount of cash stolen, without explaining how the journalists’ reports had hurt him, they are charged with “defaming” him, “attacking his honour” and even “inciting revolt” in a trial that opened at the start of January.

“It was while investigating the circumstances of the completely arbitrary arrest of these journalists and the charges brought against them that we discovered that they had in fact been in the crosshairs of the Togolese authorities for a long time, as shown by the industrial-scale cyber-espionage to which Loïc Lawson was subjected in 2021. Until the Pegasus scandal broke in July of that year and implicated Togo, the intrusions on his phone occurred with an astonishing frequency, up to several times a week for six months, giving the perpetrators access to all of this journalist’s data. These are the first proven cases of journalists being targeted by spyware in Togo. It is now up to the justice system to establish the responsibility of the Togolese authorities and NSO Group, the company that provided them with this spyware.”

Arnaud Froger, head of RSF’s investigation desk

“By mobilising its network of cyber defenders, engineers and technicians, RSF has reinforced its capacity to conduct digital forensics investigations. This makes a big difference. Today, we can shed light on the use of these methods to target journalists and we can send a strong signal to spyware vendors and to their clients.”

Nicolas Diaz, head of digital security and operations at RSF

After RSF told Lawson he had been subjected to close cyber-surveillance and whereas he was still in shock from his recent detention, he said he was “very concerned about the extent of the information to which those responsible for this operation may have had access.” They may have been able to identify some of his sources, he said.

Togolese communication minister and government spokesman Yawa Kouigan did not respond to RSF’s request for an explanation of the surveillance operation targeting journalists and the use of such methods in Togo.

Journalists often targeted by Togo’s authorities

Three other Togolese journalists, Ferdinand Ayité, Luc Abaki and Carlos Ketohou, were on the list of 50,000 potential Pegasus targets that were identified by an international consortium’s investigation in 2021. But it was not possible at the time to conduct a technical analysis of their phones to establish whether they had indeed been compromised. In the wake of this investigation, RSF filed several complaints in France concerning 25 journalists in ten countries and is now registered as an interested party in the judicial investigation initiated in France.

The Togolese authorities often target critical journalists and media. Ayité, who is the publisher of the news website L’Alternative, and Isidore Kouwonou, its editor, were forced to flee the country in March 2023 after being arrested and subjected to intimidation. They were sentenced in absentia to three years in prison on charges of “contempt of authority” and “spreading mendacious comments on social media” as a result of complaints by two government ministers.

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What can we expect?

Dominating the African landscape will be polarised positions exacerbated by a rise in manipulated information, fervently peddled by paid social media influencers, as we witnessed during elections in Nigeria and Kenya. The control and flow of information will be exercised through the strategic use of legal frameworks to aggressively oppose dissent. The quelling of protests will be more brutal than ever before, as governments focus their energies on retention of power. Undoubtedly, freedom of expression, access to information and media freedom will come under duress, even in countries considered democratically progressive and politically stable.

A Thomson Reuters Foundation report, Weaponizing the Law: Attacks on Media Freedom, aptly describes how countries are purposefully using laws to take punitive measures against free speech:

While these new laws or provisions vary from country to country, they share certain features, including deliberately vague language. They often confer broad powers on authorities to interpret and carry out criminal investigations with limited judicial oversight and procedural safeguards. They specifically target and grant harsher penalties for speech that is disseminated online or via social media.

The case of Senegal

Possibly the most visible faltering of democratic principles has been observed in Senegal – which heads to the polls in February. Considered one of the secure countries in the Sahel region – where coups became a common feature of the political landscape – Senegal’s reputation as an outlier has taken a battering in recent years.

In the run up to elections there has been a brutal clampdown on protests, an upsurge in arbitrary detentions, the suspension of media outlets, arrest of journalists, disruption of the internet and the jailing of political opponents. As the analysis by Control Risks points out:

“In the last five years, Senegal’s democratic model has morphed into the type of dominant-party system seen elsewhere in West Africa. The opposition has been hollowed out, and checks and balances on executive power eroded.”

Ousmane Sonko, leader of the opposition party, has been at the centre of Senegal’s downward spiral into repression and violent clampdown of ongoing protests. Together with his party Patriotes africains du Sénégal pour le travail, l’éthique et la fraternité  (Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics, and Fraternity, or PASTEF as it is more popularly known) this “rising political star who fired up Senegal’s youth,” has been a target from the time he participated in the 2019 presidential election.

Sonko has spent the last few years fighting off a sustained legal campaign initiated with charges of rape, for which he was acquitted. A civil libel suit filed against him ended with a suspended two-year prison sentence. This was then followed by charges of fomenting insurrection, and on 1 July he was sentenced to two years in prison for corrupting youth. In between the intermittent protests, and the courtroom back and forth, Human Rights Watch reported that Senegal’s interior minister announced the dissolution of the opposition party “for rallying its supporters during violent protests in June this year and in March 2021. On the same day, the government also restricted access to mobile data internet services to stop what it called the spread of “hateful and subversive” messages on social media.”

Media outlets and journalists covering the trial or even commenting on Sonko’s case, have faced similar legal harassment – with arbitrary arrests, prolonged detention, constant court delays and the threat of heavy penalties if convicted.

Pape Alé Niang, the director of the privately owned news site Dakar Matin, has been arrested, released, rearrested, imprisoned, placed on probation, prohibited from commenting on Sonko’s case and barred from leaving the country. On 29 May 2023, Aliou Sané, the coordinator of “Y’en A Marre”, a popular citizens’ movement advocating for good governance in Senegal, was arrested while visiting Sonko.

The efforts to have Sonko removed from the electoral process came to a head at the beginning of 2024 when he, along with Karim Wade, the son of former president Abdoulaye Wade, were excluded from the final list of candidates approved for next month’s presidential election by the country’s powerful Constitutional Council.

How did we get here?

The first faltering misstep dates back to 2016 when President Macky Sall was halfway through his first term. Committing to the promise he made before he was elected, Senegal held a successful constitutional referendum, which approved amendments, including the reduction of the presidential term from seven to five years, and a limit of two five-year terms for the president. Based on optics alone, this referendum was reassuring, as it exhibited a break from the continental trend of leaders circumventing term limits.

However, President Sall then alienated a large portion of the public when he intimated that he was considering running for a third term, as his first term was under the previous constitution. It was only in July 2023 that he finally declared: “There has been much speculation and commentary on my eventual candidature on this election. My decision, carefully considered… is not to run as a candidate in the upcoming election.”

While this news was celebrated for “diffusing a political timebomb”,  Moumoudou Samb, a driver of an informal taxi, told VOA: “I’m impressed by his graceful exit, but it’s too late – too many people have needlessly died,” said Samb. “But at least he’s ending his reign on a high note.”

As highlighted by Al Jazeera: “In Sall’s 12 years in office, Senegal has dropped from “free” to “partly free,” in global democracy rankings from the Washington-based NGO Freedom House. Over the same era, Senegal dropped from a “flawed democracy” to a “hybrid regime”, as per The Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2022 Democracy Index. And yet, those flaws – as well as the deaths of protesters killed by security forces or the jailing of journalists and opposition politicians under his tenure – may soon be forgotten by an international community that was happy to see him decide to stand down.

Nationally, citizens may not be so easily pacified.

Tools to push back

The sustained pushback from civil society organisations and an energised youth movement has helped to some extent keep Senegal in check and prevent it from sliding further down on the democratic barometer. Information collected thanks to concerted efforts by IFEX member the MFWA to document violations and monitor the freedom of expression environment can be used to lobby and advocate both nationally and regionally.

Support has to be given to organisations like Amnesty International, whose submission for the 45th Session of the Universal Periodic Review Working Group for January-February 2024 gives a detailed outline of the deterioration of Senegal’s political landscape. The contents of the report can be used to develop a scorecard, against which promises made by the incoming head of state can be measured.

Another useful resource – developed by the International Press Institute (IPI), Senegalese digital rights group Junction and the MFWA – is a tool kit on the legal and regulatory frameworks governing the media in Senegal.  As MFWA’s 18 December launch article states:

“The tool kit is expected to be a useful reference material for journalists, media defense organisations, media training institutions and other actors with a stake in peaceful and effective media coverage of the upcoming polls.”

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