Mauritania Media Sustainability Index (MSI)
April 24, 2013
About the MSI
IREX designed the MSI to measure the strength and viability of any country's media sector. The MSI considers all the factors that contribute to a media system—the quality of journalism, effectiveness of management, the legal environment supporting freedom of the press, and more—to arrive at scores on a scale ranging between 0 and 4. These scores represent the strength of the media sector components and can be analyzed over time to chart progress (or regression) within a country. Additionally, countries or regions may be compared to one another. IREX currently conducts the MSI in 80 countries, and began studying Africa in 2006.
MSI Overview | Africa | Asia | Europe & Eurasia | Middle East & North Africa
Download Complete Mauritania Chapter (PDF): 2012 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2006/7 | 2006/7 (français)
MSI Mauritania – 2012 Introduction
Overall Country Score: 1.64
The Islamic Republic of Mauritania, a former French colony, became independent in November, 1960. After being under the single-party regime from 1965 to 1978 of the Mauritanian People’s Party and Mokhtar Ould Daddah (the “Father of the Nation”), as president, Mauritania has seen many successful (and many abortive) coups. The country has also endured the travesties of rigged elections. After many years of successive regimes and transitional governments, however, General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz came to power in 2008. Under pressure from opposition parties, he conceded the restoration of constitutional rule and general elections in 2009. On August 5, 2009, Aziz was officially proclaimed the outright winner in the first round of the elections, and was formally sworn in as president for a five-year term.
The emergence of an independent press began in July 1991 with the enactment of Ordinance 91-023 on the freedom of the press. The ordinance, and its article 4 in particular, were used as a vehicle of repression by the government to subject independent publications to a regime of prior authorization and censorship by the Ministry of the Interior. The abolition of the ordinance under the transitional regime of Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall marked a definitive break with the past and a new era of change for the press and the entire media sector.
Prime Minister Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar, in December 2005, established the National Consultative Commission for the Reform of the Press, Radio, and Television to revitalize a sector that had fallen into decay. It provided a comprehensive overview of the printed press and broadcasting sector, and proposed appropriate measures designed, among other things, to put in place a legal and institutional framework for the promotion of the press under the rule of law. To enact the reforms, Mauritanian media were subsequently governed by Ordinance 017-2006 of October 2006 concerning freedom of the press that repealed the 1991 ordinance. The new law, which was more liberal, was apparently the result of consensus and had the progressive aspect, at least on paper, of decriminalizing press offenses and abolishing censorship. Furthermore, it allowed newspapers to be published on the basis of a simple declaration to the Office of the Public Prosecutor. The new ordinance, in Article 31 specifically, also established the principle of state-sponsored subsidies to the press coupled with the establishment of a media regulatory body called the High Authority for the Press, Radio, and Television (HAPA).
