(RSF/IFEX) – The latest issue of the daily “Nouakchott info” has been banned by the authorities, allegedly over an article about the Mauritanian Central Bank governor. “We ask that you reconsider this measure,” RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard said in a letter to Interior Minister Lemrabott Sidi Mahmoud Ould Cheikh Ahmed. The organisation recalls that nine […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The latest issue of the daily “Nouakchott info” has been banned by the authorities, allegedly over an article about the Mauritanian Central Bank governor.
“We ask that you reconsider this measure,” RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard said in a letter to Interior Minister Lemrabott Sidi Mahmoud Ould Cheikh Ahmed. The organisation recalls that nine publications have been censored by the Interior Ministry in the past year. Two more have already been penalised in January 2003.
The Interior Ministry censored and banned the distribution of the 23 January issue of the daily “Nouakchott info”, in accordance with Article 11 of the 1991 Press Law. According to the legislation, the Interior Ministry can, by decree, “ban the circulation, distribution or sale of newspapers (…) that harm the reputation of the state”. In such instances, the ministry is not required to offer any justification for its decision. It is simply required to provide the newspaper and printer with “written notification” of its decision. “Nouakchott info” editor-in-chief Isselmou Ould Moustapha believes the paper was banned because of an article about the Mauritanian Central Bank governor.
In mid-January, the Interior Ministry banned the printing of issue 14 of the weekly “Sahafa” (dated 13 January). The move followed the paper’s publication of a report on the opposition’s activities abroad, which included news about the French-based underground group Conscience et résistance (see IFEX alert of 14 January 2003).
