President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, has insisted that all Senegalese citizens who want to set up private TVs or radios “should give evidence that their financial resources are not provided by foreigners.”
Wade was reacting to a controversy over the suspension of the attribution process of a TV frequency to “Futurs Medias”, a group owned by the Senegalese music star, Youssou Ndour. “This is my last word on this issue,” President Wade said.
Senegalese Communication Minister, Moustapha Guirassy, who was recently submitting his 2010 budget proposal to Parliament, had explained that “a frequency was assigned to the Futurs Medias Group in March 2008, as a first step of the process.”
“But, the TV is allowed to broadcast only after a contract specifying terms and conditions is signed, the Communication Minister and government spokesman had said, adding that “the document has never been retrieved by the Futurs Medias leaders, who wanted to convert the frequency assignment.”
According to Mr. Guirassy, “the frequency was assigned for a thematic and culturally-oriented TV, but the Futurs Medias Group later re-applied to have the TV changed into a general information channel.”
“In such conditions, the Minister had added, the President cannot sign. When we took office, we were told that the authorization was ready. But later, we agreed with the Group’s leaders that no agreement was signed yet.”
“When you receive a request for change, the process is necessarily delayed. The managers of the media group have told us they wanted to broadcast via a satellite, but the assignment was made for a terrestrial network. It was normal to change the whole process,” he went on.
For their part, the private media group leaders had issued a statement indicating that “the changes in the TV orientation (Cultural to General info) and in the broadcast mode (terrestrial or UHF canal 42 to satellite system) was no excuse for those long delays.”
Source African Press Agency
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