In Senegal, the press has been in turmoil since Wednesday, October 29th. The cause is the arrest of two journalists at their newsrooms: Maïmouna Ndour Faye of 7TV and Babacar Fall of RFM. Our colleagues were taken away by the police after covering the case of Madiambal Diagne, the Senegalese businessman being prosecuted by the Senegalese justice system and currently under judicial supervision in France.

Several Senegalese radio and television stations are broadcasting on a loop, or even in special editions, both to debate the reasons for the arrest of the two journalists, but above all to analyze the events surrounding their arrest.

In the case of Maïmouna Ndour Faye, director general of 7TV, it was Tuesday evening, October 28, at the television station's offices. The channel had just broadcast a report featuring businessman Madiambal Diagne, a media mogul and vocal critic of the Dakar government, who is being prosecuted in a fraud case by the Senegalese justice system, which considers him a fugitive. Law enforcement officers stormed 7TV and took the director, nicknamed "MNF," into custody.

And this Wednesday morning, it was Babacar Fall, a journalist at RFM and sports correspondent for RFI in Dakar. He had just finished a telephone interview with Madiambal Diagne when the police intervened at the radio station to arrest our colleague, according to RFM's Facebook page.

The Council of Press Distributors and Publishers of Senegal " condemns in the strongest possible terms the arrest of Maïmouna Ndour Faye " and denounces " a heavy-handed intervention " by the security forces. The SYNPICS union, for its part, " expresses its deep concern in circumstances that challenge democratic principles. "