{"id":6869,"date":"2021-12-02T08:58:14","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T08:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/mauritian-parliament-imposes-tougher-regulations-on-broadcast-media"},"modified":"2021-12-02T11:54:10","modified_gmt":"2021-12-02T11:54:10","slug":"mauritian-parliament-imposes-tougher-regulations-on-broadcast-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/mauritian-parliament-imposes-tougher-regulations-on-broadcast-media","title":{"rendered":"Mauritian parliament imposes tougher regulations on broadcast media"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. <\/strong><\/span>Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the president of Mauritius not to promulgate the law imposing much tougher regulations on radio stations that the national assembly passed yesterday despite opposition from the media. This law threatens journalistic independence, RSF says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWake for freedom of expression,\u201d was the front-page headline in the Mauritian newspaper L\u2019Express yesterday morning, a few hours before the national assembly approved the Independent Broadcasting Authority (Amendment) Bill, giving the authorities extensive powers to penalise the island nation\u2019s very popular privately-owned radio stations and jeopardising the confidentiality of journalists\u2019 sources.<\/p>\n

The law would enable the director of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), the national broadcast media regulator, to ask a judge to order journalists to reveal their sources or \u201cproduce any record, document or article needed for the exercise, by the Authority, of its regulatory powers.<\/p>\n

\u201d And it establishes no legal safeguards for this practice.<\/p>\n

It would also increase the penalties that courts can impose on journalists, extend the IBA\u2019s powers and further undermine its already limited independence.<\/p>\n

Media outlets that fail to comply with the rules or journalists who refuse to reveal their sources would face up to five years in prison and a fine of 500,000 rupees (10,000 euros) \u2013 five times more than the current fine.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the IBA members responsible for settling disputes in the event of an appeal would now be appointed by the government and not by the IBA itself, as was the case until now.<\/p>\n

Finally, the media licensing process would become much more onerous. Licences would cost twice as much and would be valid for only one year, instead of three.<\/p>\n

This means that the IBA\u2019s director, who is appointed by the prime minister, would have an opportunity to strip a media outlet of its licence every 12 months. Furthermore, the new law specifies that \u201cthe past conduct of a licensee\u201d should be considered when \u201cdetermining whether or not to renew a licence. \u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat with increasing the threat to the confidentiality of sources, reinforcing penalties, making it harder to renew a licence and undermining the regulator\u2019s independence, this bill has provisions that are very dangerous for journalistic freedom, pluralism and independence in Mauritius,\u201d said Arnaud Froger, the head of RSF\u2019s Africa desk.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ask the president not to sign it into law.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Mauritius<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the president of Mauritius not to promulgate the law imposing much tougher regulations on radio stations that the national assembly passed yesterday despite opposition from the media. This law threatens journalistic independence, RSF says. \u201cWake for freedom of expression,\u201d was the front-page headline in the Mauritian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":6868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,8,12,16],"tags":[233,245,255,241,163],"class_list":["post-6869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mauritius","tag-mauritian","tag-mauritius","tag-parliament"],"yoast_head":"\nMauritian parliament imposes tougher regulations on broadcast media - Mauritius<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the president of Mauritius not to promulgate the law imposing much tougher regu ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/mauritian-parliament-imposes-tougher-regulations-on-broadcast-media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mauritian parliament imposes tougher regulations on broadcast media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the president of Mauritius not to promulgate the law imposing much tougher regu ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/mauritian-parliament-imposes-tougher-regulations-on-broadcast-media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mauritius\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-02T08:58:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-12-02T11:54:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2021\/12\/img-61a8b3c0cb4fe.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1170\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"470\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/mauritian-parliament-imposes-tougher-regulations-on-broadcast-media#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/mauritian-parliament-imposes-tougher-regulations-on-broadcast-media\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Mauritian parliament imposes tougher regulations on broadcast media\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-02T08:58:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-12-02T11:54:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/mauritian-parliament-imposes-tougher-regulations-on-broadcast-media\"},\"wordCount\":407,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/mauritian-parliament-imposes-tougher-regulations-on-broadcast-media#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2021\/12\/img-61a8b3c0cb4fe.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Mauritius\",\"Mauritian\",\"Mauritius\",\"Parliament\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/mauritian-parliament-imposes-tougher-regulations-on-broadcast-media#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/mauritian-parliament-imposes-tougher-regulations-on-broadcast-media\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/mauritian-parliament-imposes-tougher-regulations-on-broadcast-media\",\"name\":\"Mauritian parliament imposes tougher regulations on broadcast media - 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