Gambiaj.com – (DAKAR, Senegal) – The Senegalese authorities appear determined to deny journalist Madiambal Diagne any platform to speak to the public, even from exile in France, as two prominent media figures have now been arrested for interviewing him.
The latest to be detained is Babacar Fall, host of RFM Matin on Radio Futurs Médias (RFM). Fall was reportedly handcuffed and taken away by police shortly after his broadcast featuring Diagne, who is currently in France and the subject of an international arrest warrant issued by Senegal.
RFM confirmed that law enforcement officers descended on its premises before his arrest, with colleague Mohamed Alimou Bâ announcing the development during a live special edition following the incident.
Fall’s arrest follows that of Maïmouna Ndour Faye, CEO of 7TV, who was dramatically picked up in the middle of her own program after hosting Diagne earlier in the week. During the broadcast, widely circulated on social media, gendarmes stormed the studio, ordering her to stay put.
In a tense exchange caught on video, Ndour Faye demanded to know why she was being restrained, insisting she could present herself voluntarily. “You’re not going anywhere,” one officer told her, to which she replied defiantly, “Then use force.” Moments later, she was escorted to a waiting vehicle and taken into custody.
Her lawyer, Me Elhadj Amadou Sall, confirmed that she was placed under police custody for ‘undermining state security’ and ‘contempt of the judiciary,‘ charges brought under Article 80 of the Senegalese penal code.
A security source later claimed that Ndour Faye’s program had actually been pre-recorded, not live, and that officers found only a guard at the 7TV premises when they arrived.
The channel’s power supply was reportedly cut before Ndour Faye arrived to inquire about the situation, at which point she was detained.
Meanwhile in France, Madiambal Diagne—publisher of Le Quotidien and head of Groupe Avenir Communication—was due to appear before the Versailles Court of Appeal on Tuesday. However, the hearing was postponed to November 4 at the request of his lawyers.
Speaking to journalists outside the courtroom, Diagne described his prosecution as “eminently political.”
“They’ve been after me for a long time,” he said. “I’ve been summoned multiple times, and now they’ve fabricated allegations just to implicate me. The way they did it shows this is a political case.”
He further stated that he had asked for a public hearing to ensure transparency. “We wanted everyone to see what’s in the file,” he added, “but the court said it preferred to preserve the serenity of the proceedings.”
The sequence of arrests and the state’s reaction underscore Senegal’s resolve to silence Madiambal Diagne’s voice in national media, extending even to journalists who grant him airtime from abroad.
Observers warn that the arrests mark a worrying escalation in the government’s approach toward dissenting journalists—signaling that any platform given to the exiled reporter could now be treated as a threat to state security.
