Prohibited from access to the Maison de la presse, press employers postpone their meeting until January 22

“This is the first time in history that press employers have been banned from accessing the Maison de la Presse. Since its creation, a telephone call to the director of the structure gave access to the premises as long as it was a media organization,” denounces the Cdeps in a press release. According to the same source, the Director of the Maison de la Presse, informed on Sunday morning and who promised to make the necessary arrangements, then organized his unreachability.

Journalists, reporters and other media technicians, who came to cover the press briefing, were informed in the courtyard of the Maison de la Presse.

The Cdeps says it has noted a new milestone in the strategy of the new authorities to muzzle the press. After the tax harassment, notes the Cdeps, the unilateral suspension of conventions, the non-payment of services provided, refusing access to journalists at the Maison de la Presse, which bears the name of Babacar Touré, is the height of it!

“Today, private press companies are all almost bankrupt with colossal debts to their suppliers and some have closed. The social cost for media workers is very heavy in 303 days: elimination of hundreds of jobs, pharaonic salary arrears, non-contribution to social security institutions, poor medical coverage,” we read in the document. The Cdeps says it is hopeful that the appeals filed at the level of the Supreme Court will make it possible to overturn all the illegal decisions of the Minister of Communication.

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As such, the Cdeps will continue to denounce attacks on press freedom and postpones its conference until Wednesday January 22, 2025, still at the Maison de la Presse.
Adou FAYE