SECTOR 4 The media practices high levels of professional standards. 4.1 The standard of reporting follows the basic principles of accuracy and fairness. Unanimously, the panel points out that from the point of view of accuracy and equity in the treatment of information – some participants prefer to speak of balance – the Senegalese press leaves much room for criticism. The group paints a gloomy picture, the subject of frequent denials as well as defamation suits. One even sees proceedings brought by organs of the press against other media for defamation. In certain cases, on the other hand, citizens who are victims can neither lodge a complaint nor place a denial or right of reply in the publication which produced the information. “For fear of fuelling the controversy to no purpose, no-one reacts”, not to mention the outright refusal by some publications to comply with the law regarding the right of reply. Excessive recourse to the “editor’s note” (the publication’s reaction to a right of reply, to a correction notice or a denial) is also deplored. Regarding the refusal of the right of reply, the very virulent verbal confrontation between two union leaders, Awa Wade (secretary-general of the UDEN) and Mademba Sock (secretary- general of the UNSAS) via the press is edifying. While the newspaper Le Quotidien – which was the first to publish unkind words by the one about the other on its front page – granted the right of reply, the television station Walf TV, on its part, “played deaf” to the request for a right of reply by the union leader concerned, the target of the said offensive statements. Concerning “editor’s notes”, according to one voice on the panel they indicate an endemic lack of modesty in the press, “but, in the information race it is possible to make bona fide mistakes”. In such cases, the speaker believes that the journalist should recognise that he/she made a mistake and leave it at that, because not only is he/she a human being, who can make mistakes, but the right of reply is an acquired right of a citizen. In the opinion of some, the problem arises more acutely in the private press, particularly in the “offs” of the newspapers sold for 100 CFA (20 US cents). Regarding the public press, a panellist recalls a procedure which is applied rigorously at the daily Le Soleil whereby the persons concerned by a piece of news must give their respective versions in the same article, not in succession. As to the reason for this regression, several explanations are put forward by the panel. For fear of not being first with the news, journalists tend to publish information before doing the necessary verifications and cross-checks. But, in the 112 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER SENEGAL 2013