Today marks the annual International Journalists’ Day, while Mauritanian journalists continue to face the same difficult conditions they have resisted since the Mauritanian state was founded. Nevertheless, there is great hope on the horizon in the new direction that is beginning to emerge after decades of struggle, perseverance and considerable sacrifices by successive generations of journalists in the country.
The Mauritanian Journalists’ Union extends its sincere congratulations to all men and women, older and younger, in this demanding profession in Mauritania. It wishes them health, happiness, further success and patience in the heroic roles they fulfil in service to the country and its citizens.
The Union also takes this opportunity to recall the serious challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic to journalists in Mauritania and its negative effects on press organisations, especially private ones. This requires the Mauritanian government to act swiftly to prevent the sector from collapsing, support it materially and morally, and assist independent press organisations that have played pivotal roles in confronting the pandemic and raising awareness of its dangers without receiving any form of support.
The Union stresses that the situation of Mauritanian journalists in both the public and private sectors remains unchanged despite the repeated appeals it has made from its establishment to the present.
The absence of employment contracts and low salaries worsen the deterioration of media organisations and impede their development.
We call for better conditions for young journalists in press organisations, an end to their exploitation by some public and private media outlets, and the granting of all their rights. The difficult situation of Mauritanian journalists has been aggravated by some media organisations dismissing employees on the grounds of the repercussions of the Covid 19 pandemic.
The Union also reports having recorded numerous cases of detention, assault and confiscation of journalists’ equipment in Nouakchott and Nouadhibou over the past year. Some private media outlets have also faced harassment and been denied event coverage and equal access to information from official sources alongside public media, particularly during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
Despite structural challenges, the Mauritanian Journalists’ Union declares its full support for the serious steps taken by the country’s highest authorities towards reforming the sector, in response to the letter setting out its reform demands, which it handed to the President of the Republic during his meeting with its Executive Bureau.
In this context, the Union highly commends the report prepared by the national media reform commission and calls on the authorities to implement its recommendations swiftly, before they are swept aside as happened to the proposals of the ٢٠١٦ consultation days.
As the sole legitimate representative of Mauritanian journalists, the Mauritanian Journalists’ Union welcomes the level of consultation and engagement with it in the reform steps pursued by the highest authorities, as well as the positive response it receives within various state bodies. It looks forward to a genuine partnership with the Mauritanian government, regulatory bodies and media organisations to advance journalists’ rights, serve the profession and develop the media’s mission, which is indispensable in any country seeking respect and aspiring to be a model of democracy.
The Union stresses that the current state of the country’s media cannot continue. Either it develops in form and substance and moves towards institutionalisation, the first essential criterion, or the media system will collapse under entrenched conflicts and corrupt influential lobbies embedded throughout it, which wish neither the country nor its people well and feed on the sector’s failure..
The Union affirms that improving journalists’ material and moral circumstances and providing them with legal protection is the foundation for professional national media that put service to the country and its citizens above all else. It believes this self-evident truth must be our shared starting point in reforming journalism and establishing the foundations of the rule of law and freedoms.
Nouakchott, 3 May 2021
The Executive Bureau of the Mauritanian Journalists’ Union.