The Mauritanian Journalists’ Union called for rescuing “the remaining press organisations before the sector collapses as a result of the deadly drying-up policy suffered by all its members, which does not serve serious national media”.
The Union called, in a report issued for World Press Freedom Day, on “the Mauritanian government, fellow journalists and national public opinion to work seriously to protect the gains achieved in the media”.
The Union said that 2017 “witnessed many incidents and attacks against Mauritanian journalists, including detention, beatings, confiscation of press equipment and the use of tear gas, despite the absence of journalists in prison and our country’s good standing in the global press freedom index”.
It added that it “recorded numerous assaults on journalists, especially while they covered activities opposing the latest constitutional amendment”, as well as “four separate incidents during the past year involving beatings, arrests and equipment confiscation. Four journalists were also placed under judicial supervision on charges relating to their newspapers’ funding”. It called on “the Mauritanian authorities to strengthen a culture of freedoms within the state’s security and administrative services that repeatedly commit these violations”.
The Union noted “with pride the high standing reached by press freedoms after decades of journalists’ struggle”, while stressing “the structural crises that continue: official media organisations have not signed their specifications and commitments, and private media remain weak and lack even basic resources and requirements, with journalists paying the price”.
The Union said that the past period had seen “press funding sources dry up and no implementation of the recommendations from the general press reform forums held in 2016”. It “warmly welcomed the enactment of the advertising law” and called for “its swift implementation”.