The economic precariousness of the media is the bedrock of the fragility of our democracy and constitutes an obstacle to individual liberties.
The most common finding is that the traditional press enterprise is dying. Our diagnosis: the media economy escapes its main players, content producers, because intellectual property is not valued.
Media pluralism and new communication technologies have added to the confusion. The electrical appliance industry and trade is booming as the media grows black.
In a nutshell, there is a real economic injustice that sags the flourishing of the press, one of the jewels of our democracy.
Speakers: Eugénie Aw (Former Director of CESTI), Maguette Ndong (SYNPICS), Fatou Diagne Senghor (Article 19) and Amadou Tidiane Sy (EJICOM).
About the speakers
Eugenie Aw is one of the first Senegalese female journalists and communication specialists, with an atypical journey between Senegal and Canada. Former director of the Center for Information Science and Technical Studies (CESTI) from 2005 to 2011, Eugenie was passionate about the arts from her studies of philosophy at the University of Dakar. In 1971, she received the Art Critics Prize for an article on Pablo Picasso published in Dakar Matin.
Eugenie continued after 2011 to participate in the reflection on the media, the training of journalists, the evolution of journalism, gender relations, the media and violence.
Maguette Ndong is Deputy Secretary General of the Syndicate of Information and Social Communication Professionals (SYNPICS) responsible for communication. Created in 1984, SYNPICS works to improve the media environment, with an emphasis on building the capacities of actors.
Fatou Jagne Senghore Specialist and Defender of human rights and freedom of speech with more than 20 years of experience in Africa. She created the ARTICLE 19 West Africa office in Senegal in 2010 and represented ARTICLE 19 in various initiatives, including in the IFEX program on Tunisia (Monitoring Group on Tunisia) from 2005 to 2011. From 2002 to 2005 she supported the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights for the finalization and adoption of the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Speech in Africa and the establishment of the mechanism of the Special Rapporteur on the Freedom of Speech in Africa.
Amadou Tidiane Sy
Director of the Graduate School of Journalism, Internet and Communication (E-JICOM) and new vice-president of The Cell Norbert Zongo for Investigative Journalism in West Africa (CENOZO). Amadou Tidiane Sy graduated from the Center for Information Science and Technology (CESTI) , the school of journalism at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar. He is also the founder of the information site "Ouestafnews".
Amadou Tidiane Sy is a former member of Agence France Presse (AFP), the BBC, among other media with whom he has collaborated during his career.
Amadou Tidiane Sy is one of the forerunners of Africa Check, a structure which fights against false information in African publications.
Ibou Fall
After attempts in the creation and the edition of comics, with as only diploma the bac literary classics (Latin-Greek) he began in the press in 1989 as proofreader of the bi-weekly Sopi of which he became one of the ticket agents Le Billet de Ibou. Ibou was initiated into journalism and founded with five other journalists dismissed from Sopi the weekly Le Témoin in 1990. Reporter, then editor, he published the collection of his first Senegalese people in 1993. Founder of the daily newspapers Tract (2000) and Frasques (2001) he subsequently published four other collections of Senegalese, including Dieu le pire (2009), Banc Diakhlé (2010), Les Egocrates(2012) and NTS, Les Nouveaux Types de Sénégalaiseries (2013). He is one of the founders of the thirty-something Le P’tit Railleur Senegalais, of which he is the director of publication.