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Category: Agora

  • Senegal delays election, authorities cut mobile internet, revoke Walf TV’s license, harass journalists

    Dakar, February 5, 2024—Senegalese authorities must restore mobile internet access in the country and the broadcasting license of Walf TV, investigate and hold accountable those responsible for briefly detaining or harassing at least four journalists, and allow the press to report freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Monday.

    On Saturday, Senegalese President Macky Sall announced that the presidential election originally scheduled for February 25 would be indefinitely postponed, citing a dispute over the candidate list. On Monday, as Senegalese lawmakers began debating the duration of the postponement, protesters took to the streets, and police responded with arrests and tear gas.

    “Senegalese authorities must immediately lift the mobile internet suspension, reverse the decision to permanently withdraw Walf TV’s broadcasting license, and ensure journalists are not restricted or harassed while covering ongoing protests,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program. “As Senegal grapples with the postponement of elections, journalists play a vital role in helping the public understand what is happening. Their ability to report, including via mobile internet, must be protected, not censored.”

    On Sunday, Senegal’s Ministry of Communication, Telecommunications, and Digital Economy (MCTPEN) announced it had “temporarily” suspended access to mobile internet due to “hateful and subversive” messages on social media, without indicating the duration of the cutoff.

    Internet users began to notice disruption to their mobile connectivity on Monday, according to CPJ’s review of service in the country. Mobile internet accounts for 97% of user connections, according to a September 2023 report by Senegal’s Telecommunications and Postal Regulatory Authority, which regulates the sector.

    Also on Sunday, Senegalese authorities permanently withdrew the broadcasting license of Walf TV, the television broadcast service of the privately owned media group Wal Fadjri and one of the country’s major broadcasters, according to CPJ’s review of access to the channel in the country and a copy of the MCTPEN’s decision. The ministry cited Wal Fadjri’s “state of recidivism,” the broadcasting of violent images exposing teenagers, and “subversive, hateful, and dangerous language that undermines state security.”

    Walf TV’s broadcasts on Sunday focused on the escalating protests, according to CPJ’s review, which did not identify any calls to violence in that coverage.

    The same day, officers with Senegal’s gendarmerie in Dakar, the capital, harassed and briefly detained reporters Sokhna Ndack Mbacké, with the privately owned online news site Agora TV, and Khadija Ndate Diouf, with the privately owned television channel Itv, before releasing them without charge, Mbacké and Diouf told CPJ. Mbacké told CPJ that the officers snatched her phone, insulted both of them, and that one officer threatened her with imprisonment if he saw her again.

    Separately, a different group of gendarmerie officers harassed Hadiya Talla, editor-in-chief of the privately owned news site La Vallée Info, interrupting his live broadcast from the protests in Dakar, according to Talla, who spoke to CPJ. First, an officer grabbed Talla’s phone and insulted him before returning it, and then later an officer interrupted his live coverage and ordered him to stop reporting, before letting Talla continue.

    The same day, a group of gendarmes twice threw tear gas in the direction of Clément Bonnerot, correspondent for the French-language global broadcaster TV5 Monde, as he stood alone in a Dakar street, filming the security forces, according to Bonnerot and CPJ’s review of a video he shared of the scene. Bonnerot told CPJ that another gendarme later accused him of “following him” and warned not to “provoke him.”

    CPJ’s calls to Ibrahima Ndiaye, spokesperson for the gendarmerie, went unanswered.

    Also in June 2023, Senegalese authorities in June 2023 suspended Walf TV for a month over its coverage of demonstrations following Sonko’s arrest and threatened to withdraw its broadcasting license in the event of a repeat offense.

    Previously, in June, July, and August 2023, the Senegalese government disrupted access to the internet and social media platforms amid protests over the arrest and prosecution of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko. TikTok has remained blocked in the country. Similar blocks of social media platforms were reported in 2021.

    Around the world, CPJ has repeatedly documented how internet shutdowns threaten press freedom and journalists’ safety. CPJ offers guidance for journalists on how to prepare for and respond to internet shutdowns.

    At least five journalists—Daouda Sow, Maniane Sène Lô, Ndèye Astou Bâ, Papa El Hadji Omar Yally, and Ndèye Maty Niang, who is also known as Maty Sarr Niang—have remained jailed in Senegal since last year in connection with their work.


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Innovation on show in $20m commercialisation grants

    Supercapacitors, a livestock trading platform and low emissions cooling are among the latest recipients of Accelerating Commercialisation grants from the federal government, which the founders say remains crucial to the Australian innovation system. The Industry department quietly published the list of recipients for the latest funding offers last month in a move away from the…

    The post Innovation on show in $20m commercialisation grants appeared first on InnovationAus.com.

    This post was originally published on InnovationAus.com.

  • Brazilian Supreme Court rules in favor of photojournalist Alex Silveira, injured by police while covering protest in 2000

    Rio de Janeiro, June 15, 2021 — The Committee to Protect Journalists today welcomed a Brazilian Supreme Court ruling requiring São Paulo state to compensate photojournalist Alex Silveira for an injury inflicted by police officers.

    On May 18, 2000, Military Police officers shot Silveira, then a photojournalist at the São Paulo daily newspaper Agora, in the eye with a rubber bullet while he was covering a protest by public school teachers, according to news reports and the journalist, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview.

    In the following months, Silveira underwent six eye surgeries and lost nearly all the vision in his left eye, and in 2003, he filed a civil lawsuit seeking damages from São Paulo state, he said.

    On June 10, the Supreme Court ruled that São Paulo state was responsible for Silveira’s injury, and ordered the state to compensate him, according to those reports and the journalist.

    Silveira told CPJ that the ruling was an important step, but added, “the battle is not over.” The court has not published its final decision, including the amount of financial compensation the state should pay, and the specific precedent set for future decisions in similar cases, Silveira said. In an email to CPJ, the Supreme Court press office said that the decision would be published within 60 days of the ruling.

    “The Brazilian Supreme Court decision holding São Paulo state responsible for police officers shooting photojournalist Alex Silveira in the eye is an important step toward justice, but the court must ensure he receives fair compensation and establish a precedent to protect journalists from police violence,” said CPJ’s Central and South America program coordinator, Natalie Southwick, in New York. “This decision cannot bring back the 20 years of Silveira’s life spent fighting for justice, or restore his sight, but it can send a clear message that authorities have an obligation to protect journalists covering protests, not use them for target practice.” 

    In 2008, the Fifth Public Treasury Court in São Paulo determined that the state should compensate Silveira; in 2014, however, the Second Chamber of Public Law overturned that decision, ruling that the journalist had put himself at risk and therefore was responsible for his own injury, according to news reports and Silveira; he then appealed to the Supreme Court.

    “We will only understand the impact when the final decision is out. It will depend on the parameters [the Supreme Court] establishes for state responsibility in similar cases and on the amount granted for moral and material damages,” Silveira told CPJ. “If the compensation is not meaningful and fair, it will have no practical effect. The Supreme Court decision will only be effective if it hurts the state in such a way that Military Police commanders restrict the use of these less lethal weapons.”

    Tais Gasparian, a lawyer who has worked on Silveira’s legal team along with her colleague, Virgínia Garcia, for more than 18 years, told CPJ via messaging app that the decision showed that “the press worker, in exercising their profession, is acting in the public interest and should be compensated when injured by agents of the state.”

    Separately, freelance photojournalist Sérgio Silva also has a civil case pending in the Supreme Court seeking damages from São Paulo state after Military Police officers shot him in the eye while he was covering a protest in 2013, according to news reports and the journalist, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview.

    “Our concern now is about the parameters that will be part of the Supreme Court’s detailed decision [in Silveira’s case], yet to be published. It can be positive or it can be a disaster,” Silva told CPJ.

    At least 25 journalists were attacked or detained during the nationwide protests that Silva covered, as CPJ documented at the time.

    An employee of the São Paulo State Court press office, who signed their email as Helena, told CPJ that the court declined to comment on the Supreme Court decision.

    Press officer Gabriela Amaral emailed CPJ a statement from the São Paulo Military Police saying that the use of rubber bullets and other similar weapons “is regulated by internal rules and takes place under specific conditions, by qualified agents trained in its use.”

    Silveira told CPJ, “nothing has made me suffer as much as the 20-year search for justice. It is very tiring, and it is not something you can do alone. I’ve counted on the support of many institutions and a law firm, without them it would not have been possible. I think the state uses this [drawn-out process], they want to tire us out until we give up fighting for our rights.”


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.