In response to criticisms raised in the National Assembly, Minister Alioune Sall provided a firm, clear, and detailed explanation of the current state of the press and the government's role in the sector. "We are simply applying the laws. We haven't invented anything," he stated from the outset, rejecting any suggestion of a vendetta or misuse of the law against certain media outlets.

For him, it is "completely false to say that the government is fighting the press," because all actions undertaken are in strict compliance with the existing legal framework, including that established before the current regime came to power. Alioune Sall also raised a troubling point regarding the use of certain funds allocated to the press.

According to him, investigations have revealed that several million CFA francs allocated to support the sector were used for purposes other than those initially intended. Even more serious, he claims that the conditions for accessing these funds were so lax that "all you needed was a phone and a YouTube channel to receive money." He considers this situation abnormal and believes it justifies a thorough reform of the mechanisms supporting the press. "We need to understand where taxpayers' money is going," he insists.

A digitalization governed by existing law

Regarding the digitization of media, often criticized by some stakeholders, the minister points out that the process was carried out based on existing legal texts, well before the new government came to power. In other words, he rejects any attempt to politicize the issue: "We digitized the media based on the law that was in place when we were not yet in power."

For him, this process was necessary and inevitable to modernize the Senegalese media landscape.

The sensitive issue of taxes: 18 years of arrears

Alioune Sall addressed the low tax contributions of many media companies. According to him, some media outlets have accumulated up to 18 years of tax arrears, a situation he described as unacceptable. "We cannot be criticized for wanting to recover 18 years of back taxes."

Here again, he advocates a regularization approach, not a repressive one. For him, every economic actor, including the media, must be subject to the same tax obligations as other sectors. According to the minister, the goal is not to stifle the press, but to make it more credible, more accountable, and more compliant with good governance principles, while protecting taxpayers' money.