The stagnant waters of the media have reached a stage of fermentation that no longer allows the State to stand by, if it is truly serious about saving its rusty façade in the face of the cohorts seeking to control propaganda platforms in order to influence the level of investment and confidence that will follow the major gas discoveries at Bir Allah. Winds from the South have begun exploiting the open windows in our local press, which competes to publish and republish every item released abroad bearing the name “Mauritania”. In the latest report, they thus succeeded in presenting the “Boufelka” as a “machine gun” and the “Krabil” as a “five-finger hand rifle”. Soon they will open other doors to rumours picked up by some of our “blogging platforms”, floating in an unstable and unprotected sea. Press reform is no longer a slogan that can be frozen or marketed: it has become a reality imposed by the development of awareness of rights and political awareness in the country. It is time for the State to end its neutrality in this field and intervene firmly to support the press that can take this sector out of the chaos of proliferation and sift through publications that no longer suit their time or context.
Any reform that does not begin with the following steps is destined to fail:
1- Review Ordinance 017/2006 issued on 12 July 2006, particularly its fourth and eleventh articles. The former (art. 4) expanded the concept of the press excessively, without rationalisation or reflection, while the latter (art.11) changed permission to publish from a “licensing” regime to a “declaration” regime, two very different things. Despite its defects, the former licensing system provided better guidance for the profession: it included an important stage, an inquiry into the character, knowledge and training of applicants wishing to invest in the profession as publishers or partners. The declaration system, by contrast, allowed a general invasion that did not distinguish educated people from others, giving everyone equal opportunities in this field and encouraging some who had failed in other professions or been dismissed from jobs to turn to the press.
2- Establish a reliable database through a comprehensive census of journalists conducted by an impartial technical committee appointed by the supervisory authorities. It would be preferable for this step to be carried out by survey bodies independent of the sector (Statistics Office), by setting specific criteria and conditions for those wishing to register. It is inconceivable that Mauritania should be the only country in its African surroundings that does not know the number of its journalists or media institutions.
3- Have the ministry issue a unified press card, granted under the conditions laid down in Decree number 027/2008 issued on 19 February 2008, and appoint a mixed committee for this purpose comprising media professionals known for their competence and good conduct, judges and lawyers.
4- Issue a decree restricting some aspects of trade-union pluralism, as is the case in many neighbouring countries, and organisationally require a unified trade-union body for journalists while encouraging specialised journalism in the country. This would combine journalists’ efforts and create honourable competition based on qualifications and competence rather than competition for licences and “nominal” bodies.
5- Review Law number 026/2008 issued on 06 May 2008, which replaces the ordinance establishing the High Authority for the Press and Audiovisual Media, in order to professionalise that body, remove it from politicians’ hands, set clear technical and scientific criteria for eligibility for membership, and give it sufficient powers to carry out its central oversight role in the media process.
6- Review Law 024/2011 issued on 08 March 2011 concerning public support for the press, set modern criteria for benefiting from the fund, and direct its proceeds towards genuine, institutional investment in kind instead of distributing them as sums of money that often do not go to their intended purpose. Introduce effective legal oversight to monitor beneficiaries while increasing the fund’s allocations.
7- Establish a specialised journalism institute to address the shortage in this area.
8- Give professional journalists the opportunity to manage their media institutions and the jobs related to their specialisations.
9- Draw up a new law prohibiting impersonation of journalists, as with the other professions in the country.
10- Separate the press sector from culture and assign it a dedicated ministry or secretariat to provide organisational oversight of the required reforms.
* Journalist holding a master’s degree in media