Senegal: Columnist spends weekend in prison for criticising president

Condemning a broadcasting bill passed by Senegal's national assembly on 21 December 2005 as "poorly drafted, ambiguous, unfair and repressive," Reporters Without Borders has urged President Abdoulaye Wade to refuse to sign it into law in order to restore some calm to the ongoing debate about press law reform. Approved by just 11 votes to 2 in a 120-member parliament, the law would create a National Council for the Regulation of Broadcasting (CNRA) which, in Reporters Without Borders' view, would probably threaten press freedom.