Senegal’s February 26 elections posed a severe challenge for the nation – and for journalists covering the vote. Violence erupted after President Abdoulaye Wade announced that he would seek a third term, despite a constitutional ban against it. Journalists faced severe challenges amid the political chaos, including attacks and beatings. Yet many were prepared to provide professional coverage despite the hardships. Hundreds of journalists had been trained and assisted by an ICFJ program, run in collaboration with Senegal’s leading journalists' union, SYNPICS, that emphasized balance, fairness and accuracy.

The program’s country director, Tidiane Kassé, sat down with ICFJ Program Officer Bethel Tsegaye to discuss the impact of ICFJ’s pre-election workshops and forums. Kassé is a veteran editor, media consultant and media trainer with extensive experience working for both Senegalese and international organizations.

How did the election go?

Kassé: The election went well. Despite Wade’s involvement as a candidate in the elections, everything was peaceful on Election Day. The initial results suggest that there will be a runoff between Wade and Macky Sall, a former party member of Wade.

How did journalists perform in their coverage?

Kassé: Journalists have done a remarkable job. They went to the polls to report live, interviewing observers, members of the polling stations and the public to check whether everything was going normally. They also reported irregularities, fraud and threats of violence to get authorities to respond. Groups of thugs who were plotting to disrupt the vote were arrested after the media reported on it. And all day long, you had people and political leaders calling the radio and TV stations to tell them about any cases of wrongdoing, so that journalists could fact check and report.

We had threats against the media the morning of the vote, but the secretary general of SYNPICS made ​​a statement to denounce them. Then everything went well.

One journalist was attacked and injured by relatives of President Wade in Fatick. SYNPICS plans to file a complaint, and the journalist has filed one as well. In the evening, all radio and television stations provided live results that were posted at polling stations until after midnight. This helped to prevent fraud and to quickly confirm the hypothesis of a second round.

How did ICFJ help journalists prepare for covering the elections?

Kassé: Because of the lack of resources, the private media lacks professionalism and is not as strong as the government-owned media, but they play an important role. ICFJ has held discussions with editors of private media in Senegal and emphasized the importance of the election and how to provide good coverage, not only giving a voice to the candidates, but also reflecting the needs and expectations of the population.

ICFJ has organized over 20 trainings in Dakar as well as in other regions. We have trained about 90 journalists. We have also trained young journalists at the school of journalism at CESTI on blogging and online journalism. After each training or workshop, we try to identify big issues or topics that journalists can develop stories from. Journalists have been covering a lot of issues relating to the election in their regions. We also identified the principles and rules journalists must adopt in order to produce fair and balanced coverage during the elections.

How have the journalists improved since all of these trainings?

Kassé: Since the trainings, journalists have been focusing on important issues in their area. I cannot say that this is new, but the type of information they include, as well their approach, is new. For example in Casamance, where we have conflict, some journalists went out into the field where fighting was happening between the rebels and the army. Despite the challenges in this region, journalists were determined to find out the impact of the ongoing conflict and the possibilities of organizing elections there.

You also have begun to see strong interviews with religious leaders and in-depth investigative coverage on different issues of importance. I know a journalist who did a series of programs, explaining to people in rural areas how to vote which were very useful to that population.

How should journalists respond to recent attacks on the press?

Kassé: Journalists in Senegal work in difficult environments, and ICFJ has helped us train journalists on safety and how to work in the midst of violence.

SYNPICS published an alert informing people that a journalist has been arrested, 70km from Dakar, in the city of Thiès. SYNPICS, with the support of ICFJ, began this alert system in efforts to keep journalists and the media aware of such happenings.

People do not easily recognize journalists in the field and we have a lot of harassment from the security here in Senegal. In an effort to help protect journalists and raise awareness of them while they are working, SYNPICS has provided them with identification jackets.

How have you been monitoring media during the election campaign?

Kassé: ICFJ and SYNPICS have selected some of the top newspapers, radio and TV stations to monitor in partnership with the private school of journalism here, ISEG. ICFJ has trained a group of 10 journalists who are doing the monitoring. They conduct research on the media here and see how the media have covered the different candidates. Every week SYNPICS will have a press conference, providing their insight based on the assessment of the coverage. SYNPICS will say if coverage has been fair or biased so that the public knows that the media are trying to be responsible in their coverage of the election. This also creates a space for the public to criticize the journalists, and also allows transparency on how journalists are covering the election.

For the first time ever, we have a Senegalese organization providing this kind of information, and the people are looking to SYNPICS for information and resources. In the past, we had European organizations coming here and doing this type of monitoring, but now we don’t have to rely solely on them.

What are some tips that you could give journalists covering elections in developing countries where the political climate is very tense and there is violence?

Kassé: I think the first tip is to train journalists to cover issues with neutrality and impartiality. Our media here can sometimes be linked to political parties. Some journalists are very close to political leaders. So we try to tell the journalists how to do good coverage without being biased or influenced.

Another tip is to be accurate and verify facts, and to be balanced. It’s also important to give equal treatment to all candidates. The most important thing is to make sure journalists keep the people’s interests in mind and respond to the needs of the public when they are covering stories instead of only reflecting on the candidates’ agendas.