Five journalists arrested in raids on Senegal’s 7TV and RFM broadcasters

Dakar, October 29, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Senegalese authorities to immediately release two journalists arrested in an October 28-29, 2025, crackdown on two outlets — 7TV and RFM — that had broadcast interviews with a politician wanted by authorities. Three other journalists were also detained during the raid on RFM, but released the same day.

The journalists in custody as of October 29 were Maimouna Ndour Faye, owner of the private television channel 7TV, and Bamba Touré, a 7TV studio operator. 

The signals of 7TV and TFM — RFM’s parent television channel, which aired the interview with the politician, Madiambal Diagne — were unavailable as of Wednesday, but their content was accessible online and via the private distributor Canal Plus, according to CPJ’s review.

“The raid by Senegalese authorities on 7TV and RFM and the arrest of five journalists is a direct attack on press freedom and the public’s right to be informed,” said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa representative. “Senegalese authorities must immediately release the two journalists still in custody — Maimouna Ndour Faye and Bamba Touré.”

Police officers arrested Babacar Fall, managing editor of the private radio station RFM on October 29 after his interview with Diagne, who travelled to France in late September and faces extradition on charges he made suspicious transactions in public contracts.

Fall was accused of spreading false news, concealing a criminal, and acts likely to compromise the security of the state and the judiciary, his lawyer, Aboubacry Barro, said. He was released Wednesday evening and his case was dismissed, according to Amadou Sabar Ba and Chérif Dia, reporters for RFM and TFM, respectively.

Police also arrested RFM studio operator Abdou Thiam and RFM reporter Cheikh Tidiane Diagne for allegedly filming Fall’s arrest. Both were released the same day.

On October 28, gendarmes arrested Faye, who hosts the 7TV’s “L’invité de MNF” program, after interrupting the broadcast of her interview with Diagne, according to 7TV reporter Mamadou Awa Ndiaye. Faye is accused of undermining state security and the authority of justice, and was scheduled to be in court on October 29, Ndiaye said.

The gendarmes also arrested Touré for filming them, Faye’s lawyer, El Hadji Moustapha Diouf, said. Videos posted on Facebook by Ndiaye show the raid. Ndiaye told CPJ that gendarmes disconnected 7TV mid-broadcast. 

A representative from the communication unit of Télédiffusion du Sénégal (TDS-SA), the national broadcasting operator, told CPJ that they were “not aware of an incident.” CPJ’s calls to the gendarmerie in the Ouakam area of Dakar where 7TV’s studios are located and to the central police station in Dakar went unanswered.

CPJ’s calls and messages to Mamadou Oumar Ndiaye, president of the National Audiovisual Regulation Council, the Senegalese media regulator, went unanswered.