On Thursday, 29 February 2024, Maïmouna Ndour Faye (MNF), journalist, founder and director of the private television channel 7TV was attacked and stabbed three times outside her home. This act sent shockwaves not only in Senegal but worldwide as violence against women journalists’ is a worrying global trend which must be addressed to ensure that the personal security of the journalist is assured and that citizens have access to uncensored information. 

The incident which occurred just a few days before International Women’s Day (IWD), 8 March, 2024, has motivated me to speak out against this dastardly act meted against a fellow journalist.  To mark IWD 2024, I have decided to take action and pen an article, to stand in solidarity with Maïmouna Ndour Faye.

Today, March 8, 2024, I stand in solidarity with MNF and add my voice to national, regional and global condemnation of this heinous attack.  I also stand in solidarity with female journalists Absa Hann, Fana Cissé, Isabelle Bampoky, Ngoné Diop, all victims of police violence, during widespread protests following the decision to postpone the Senegalese presidential election originally scheduled for February 25, 2024.   

Today, on IWD 2024, I write to celebrate the achievements of Maïmouna Ndour Faye and to raise awareness about the continued attacks on and discrimination of women journalists in Senegal.

In committing to inspire inclusion we are urged to act on IWD:

“When women aren’t present, we must ask: « If not, why not? »

When women are discriminated against, we must call out poor practice.

When the treatment of women is not equitable, we must take action.

And we must do this each time, every time.” 

A classic case of online abuse which has spilled offline

According to Freedom House, “attacks that begin online do not always stay in the virtual world, presenting a serious risk to the safety and well-being of those targeted.” And, according to The Chilling: Global trends in online violence against women journalists, a 2022 report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), 73 percent of women journalists experience online attacks connected to their work. Of these, “25 percent of the women journalists surveyed reported experiencing attacks in the real world as a result of harassment that had started online.’ 

While all journalists are at risk of such attacks, women journalists are at the front line of online harassment and intimidation.  She who knows it feels it, as a victim of online harassment, I know what MNF and other female journalists who have been attacked are going through. From 2005 to early 2019 as a journalist and later Secretary General then President of The Gambia Press Union (GPU) and witness appearing before the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission, I was subjected to vicious, malicious, online attacks which later spilled into serious off line intimidation and harassment by State and non-state actors. Tackling “sensitive” subjects and holding those in positions of power like the former President of The Gambia Yahya Jammeh and his government ministers to account resulted in online attacks that were intended to discredit, humiliate and silence me. Misogynists, apologists and supporters of former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh frequently used social media, and online news websites for such purposes with serious consequences to my personal safety and career. 

Read the column – Maïmouna and our Guilty Conscience

This spill-over includes 7 (seven) of the 13 (thirteen) UNGA and UNSCR recognised types of attacks against journalists: exile (I was declared wanted in May 2009 and found myself a refugee sur place in Bamako, Mali), reprisals against family members (my mother’s house was vandalised and ransacked twice in 2011 and 2013), intimidation and harassment(disrupted Union activities and stationed by state security personnel), misuse of national laws to target journalists (indictment for seditious intent  2009, treason and trial in absentia 2011, I was also the subject of an extradition request to the Malian authorities), smear campaigns(spread misinformation about me online and on state media), attacks on offices of media houses (illegal searches at the Union headquarters during my tenure as president), unlawful arbitrary surveillance and interception of communications (email communications between Union officials intercepted, followed by State security agents during travels outside The Gambia, leading to my arrest in 2012 in Harare airport Zimbabwe). 

I give my example to show that if not addressed expeditiously online attacks against journalists can result in misconceptions and hate not only on the part of civilians but also the State and state agents who resort to taking unjustified actions against thus threatening the personal security and ability of the journalist to do their work. 

It is therefore not an assumption that had the Senegalese authorities responded in a timely manner to threats that were made to MNF, this incident would not have occurred. I remain convinced that had the death threats, verbal attacks, insults on social media against MNF been dealt with quickly, this heinous attack against her person, could have been avoided. It is my sincere hope that going forward the Senegalese authorities and other governments in West Africa, will draft and enact laws to promote a safe online space for all journalists in particular women journalists, who face daily online abuse, often intended to suppress authentic, bold, critical voices by attacking their credibility. Sadly, these mostly go unpunished, thus emboldening physical attackers and leading to further impunity.

A rapid decline 

According to the RSF, at least 20 journalists were attacked in Senegal last February during widespread protests following the decision to postpone the presidential election originally scheduled for February 25, 2024. The attack against MNF, and police violence against Absa Hann, Fana Cissé, Isabelle Bampoky, Ngoné Diop, are all related to pre-electoral violence. It cannot be said enough that a safe and free press is a key criterium to ensuring the integrity of elections and our democratic systems. Further, all forms of physical violence against journalists are crimes against society, as they violate freedom of expression and, consequently, other rights and freedoms enshrined in international human rights instruments (UN). 

UN Member States are urged to “to do their utmost to prevent violence against journalists and media workers, to ensure accountability, bring to justice perpetrators of crimes against journalists and media workers, and ensure that victims have access to appropriate remedies.” States are also called upon “to promote a safe and enabling environment for journalists to perform their work independently and without undue interference.”  Senegal is no exception and it is important that the Government of Senegal takes immediate and necessary actions to act on its obligation to adopt effective measures to protect journalists, and to strengthen institutional frameworks that combat violence against the media and impunity.

According to Article 19, since the adoption of the United Nations Plan of Action on Safety of Journalists in 2012, the UN has increasingly recognised the need to take a holistic approach to enhancing the safety of journalists, addressing the range of interconnected, and often overlapping, threats. Some off the UN resolutions have highlighted the gender-specific threats faced by women journalists, and recognise the heightened risks for journalists in the context of election period. A closer look at Maimouna’s knife attack, and that of the four other female journalists attacked by police in Senegal makes me wonder, if they would not just add to the long global number of unresolved cases of attacks against female journalists in particular.

It is ironic that under the period of dictatorship in The Gambia many journalists sought refuge in Senegal as a haven of safety, a safe passage.  The solidarity and support that we received from the media fraternity, CSO and state institutions was overwhelming. Senegal was seen as a beacon of hope and shining example of a place where freedom of expression and opinion was in motion.  Less than a decade later, it is shocking that a country which we cited as a model for press freedom and freedom of expression in Africa has deteriorated to the point where we would see female journalists in Senegal attacked by State agents; that a female journalist would be laying their own blood, amidst the continued sneering, mockery and even taunting of other Senegalese.

I am surprised and equally shocked at the rapid decline of the environment within which the Senegalese media is currently operating and the continued shrinking of the civic space in Senegal and radical intolerance to journalists especially female journalists, media and divergent view, almost to the level that Gambian journalists suffered under Jammeh.   For this reason, I am obliged to add my voice in support and solidarity to the media fraternity in Senegal, those, who stood solidly beside us in our hour of need, providing us with the protection, resources and emotional support to regain our equilibrium.  

A courageous, tenacious, transformative leader

I must indicate that I do not know neither have I met MNF, yet my family is a keen follower of her L’invité de MNF which enables us understand better, the positions taken by the Senegalese state, non-state and political actors that she regularly hosts.  Always correctly dressed, professional in her approach, asking relevant questions and pertinent follow-up questions, she comes across as well prepared and is always courteous towards her guests.  I was moved to tears whilst reading the testimony of Madiambal Diagne on his Les Lundi of March 4, 2024 in which he stated ‘MNF is recovering from her serious injuries. Friends wanted to arrange for her to convalesce in a more tranquil setting but, more combative than ever, she systematically refused, insisting on going back on air immediately, to do the job she has chosen and for which she has risked her life. I admire your courage and tenacity, my dear!” 

I am relieved that Maïmouna, did not succumb to her wounds, as some of her detractors unashamedly called for after her attack.  Is she tenacious? Yes! Is she courageous? Yes! Yet no Story is worth the Life of a Journalist. MNF’s online attackers intended to silence and harm her, their online harassment has created the desired chilling effect, leading to her being physically attacked.   That she is undeterred, and remains focused on her mission, is even more reason for the State to act swiftly to “provide remedies to the victim”, as it has failed to seek to “prevent” the attack, despite repeated online threats and to “protect” MNF against her online abusers.  I call on the state authorities of Senegal, to ensure that this heinous knife attack does not go unpunished. I make the same call to bring the perpetrators of attacks against the other four female journalists, to justice.

Research for the purposes of this piece led to my conclusion that MNF has defied the politics of equity versus quota when it comes to women in media leadership positions.  In a male-dominated, patriarchal and sexist news media industry across West Africa, MNF who entered the journalism profession as an intern in 2006, has been able to jump over many hurdles, thus breaking the many barriers that characterise the everyday life of women journalists in Senegal, to become, the first woman to own a TV station, 7TV in 2018.  This, was preceded by the launch of her news website AZ actu in 2017, and; a content creation and communications services company 3M Universel.  

MNF is the symbol of a woman leader and role model.  She comes across is assertive, courageous, distinguished, innovative and tenacious and should be acclaimed not attacked by aggressors. It is of utmost importance that we invest in, encourage and support transformative women champions who are contributing effectively to job creation opportunities, women’s empowerment, sustainable development and a society where everyone can thrive in a safe and secure environment.

By Ndey Tapha Sosseh

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Ndey Tapha Sosseh is a Gambian journalist resident in Mali; former president of The Gambia Press Union; past coordinator of the West African Journalists Association (WAJA) and CENOZO Investigative Journalism Unit. She is a media trainer with extensive experience as Safety and Security Trainer for women journalists and the multiple risks they face in and outside newsrooms.    

Ndey Tapha is also editor of the Le Quotidien English page.