DAKAR, Oct 29, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Two Senegalese journalists have been detained for interviewing a Senegalese media mogul and government critic who is in France and himself subject to a Senegalese arrest warrant, AFP learned Wednesday from their newsrooms.

Journalist Maimouna Ndour Faye, director of the television channel 7TV, was detained by gendarmes Tuesday evening during the broadcast of her interview, according to a statement by the Senegalese press association CDEPS sent to AFP Wednesday.

The arrest was for "undermining state security and undermining the authority of the judiciary", one of her lawyers, Amadou Sall, told AFP.

On Wednesday morning the director of Senegal's RFM radio Babacar Fall was handcuffed and arrested by police after his live interview with the mogul.

"The police stormed our premises and left with Babacar Fall", a journalist reported on RFM after the incident.

Two other journalists from the same media group were arrested alongside Fall, but were released shortly afterward, the radio station's management said.

Police and the gendarmerie did not immediately respond to a request for comment by AFP.

The Union of Information and Communication Professionals of Senegal expressed "deep concern" in a statement, saying that the two journalists' arrests "challenge democratic conscience".

Faye and Fall had interviewed Senegalese press magnate and government critic Madiambal Diagne, who was briefly detained in France last week on an international arrest warrant before being released.

Senegal issued the warrant in September after Diagne, who owns a major Senegalese media group, had left the country.

Diagne, who runs the Avenir Communication press group and edits the Le Quotidien newspaper, had been summoned by investigators looking into alleged suspect financial transactions.