Statement
We at the Mauritanian Journalists’ Union received with great satisfaction the decision to implement the newly introduced statutes of public media organisations — the Mauritanian News Agency, Radio Mauritania and the Al Mouritaniya channel. These statutes have improved salaries and, for the first time in the country, legally organised these organisations’ employees’ rights and duties, career paths and relationships with management, away from the arbitrary and improvised decisions that had characterised those relationships until recently. They seek to develop the organisations and enable them to fulfil their mission as effectively as possible.
In this context, we sincerely welcome this gesture and every positive step taken in this direction: high-level decisions to establish a Press Reform Committee; workshops overseen by the supervising ministry to examine the sector’s issues and different dimensions, involving stakeholders and taking their views into account in order to improve professional standards, legal regulation and organisation; approval of a Press House; and increasing the financial allocation of the Private Press Support Fund.
While praising these steps, which embody the highest authorities’ strong will to promote press freedoms and their firm desire to involve public media in the country’s political, economic and social development, we call for their benefits and advantages to extend to all public and independent media organisations. We seek easier access to advertising and tax exemptions, and a review of the mechanisms and methods for supporting all private media — television channels, radio stations, newspapers and websites — so they can fulfil their noble duties effectively. We also call for permanent appointments for public media contributors and contracts for private media workers.
The Executive Board