The state-owned daily Le Soleil, one of Senegal’s leading newspapers, was back on the newsstands on Wednesday after employees resumed work after going on strike to protest against the “bad management” of their director general, staff representatives said.
The newspaper had been absent from newsstands since 5 August following a rare strike over the non-payment of advertising bonuses to journalists and “unfair dismissals”, according to staff representatives. They also decried “mismanagement” and “systematic plundering of (the newspaper’s) resources through nebulous deals and wheeling and dealing”.
“We have decided to go back to work. The authorities have said they have heard us. We are waiting for their arbitration,” Ndiol Maka Seck, coordinator of the college of staff delegates, made up of three of the company’s unions, told the press on Wednesday.
“We need another manager because the contract of trust has been broken with the director general,” added Mr Seck.
The pro-government daily Le Soleil is the oldest in Senegal. It was founded in 1970. It is owned 51% by the state and 49% by other public institutions and is responsible for publicizing government policy.
Eleven of the daily’s journalists were briefly arrested on 4 August by the gendarmerie because they were protesting against Mbaye’s “gabegic management”, according to a statement by one of the newspaper’s employee unions.