Madagascar: 'State subdues with financial pressure'

The African Media Barometer (AMB), the first home-grown analysis of the media landscape in Africa, said in its latest report that Mauritians do not have a culture of contesting the State.

“If confrontation takes place, it is usually in situations where there is no possibility of conflict. People speak out during talk shows on private radio stations and other forums where they are able to hide behind the cloak of anonymity,” the AMB Mauritius 2010 stated in its report.

During a press conference, Mr Constantin Grund, representative of the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation, flanked by the Mauritian panelists who have been involved in putting the report together, officially released the AMB Mauritius 2010.

On the issue of freedom of expression, AMB said that limitations are possible in the “interests of defence, public safety, public order, public morality or public health”. The report said that Mauritians tend to be “rather subdued” for a variety of reasons.

Public sector workers were instructed through a memo generated in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to refrain from speaking to the media or the public without official authorisation.

“It is equally difficult for ordinary citizens to speak out without bearing possible consequences, as Mauritius is a small island where people are familiar with each other. But government does not resort to physical threats or violence to subdue citizens,” the report said in its executive summary.

“On the contrary, the State uses financial pressure to keep people in tow. People risk the possibility of suspension, losing their jobs, facing interdictions or having government contracts withdrawn if they step out of line,” it claimed.

The AMB, a project funded by the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation, is an in-depth and comprehensive description and measurement system for national media environments on the African continent. It is an analytical exercise to measure the media situation in a given country which at the same time serves as a practical lobbying tool for media reform.

About its methodology, every two to three years a panel of 10-12 experts, consisting of at least five media practitioners and five representatives from civil society, meets to assess the media situation in their own country and discuss the national media environment according to 45 predetermined indicators.

by Clifford Vellien

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Source: www.newsnow.mu/NewsView.asp (Accessed: 18.05.2011)