Published on : 10/08/2022 – 14:02Modified : 10/08/2022 – 14:00
Dakar (AFP) – The public daily Le Soleil, one of the main in Senegal, was again on newsstands on Wednesday after employees resumed work, who were on strike to protest against “mismanagement” by their general manager, said staff representatives. .
The pro-government newspaper had been absent from newsstands since August 5 following a rare strike to protest journalists’ non-payment of -related bonuses and “wrongful dismissals”, according to staff representatives. The latter also decried the “mismanagement” and “a systematic looting of resources (from the newspaper) through nebulous markets and shenanigans”.
“We have decided to return to work. The authorities have said that they have heard us. We are awaiting their arbitration,” Ndiol Maka Seck, coordinator of the college of staff delegates, made up of three labor unions, told the press on Wednesday. ‘company.
“We need another manager because the contract of trust is broken with the general manager” Yakham Mbaye, a leader of the presidential party, added Mr. Seck.
The newspaper’s management reported in Wednesday’s post-strike edition “the events that led to this (strike) situation born of disagreements” with the staff”. She “regretted this blunder which caused harm to the ‘state, to our readers and advertisers’ and ‘apologized’.
The pro-government daily Le Soleil is the oldest in Senegal, created in 1970. 51% owned by the state and 49% by other public institutions, it is responsible in particular for popularizing government policy.
Eleven journalists from the daily were briefly arrested on August 4 by the gendarmerie because they were protesting against “the mismanagement” of Mr. Mbaye, according to a press release from one of the newspaper’s employee unions.
Senegal ranks 73rd out of 180 countries in the world ranking of press freedom established in 2022 by the NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
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