Mauritius - Media Law and Ethics: Presentation of Preliminary Report

The Preliminary Report on Media Law and Ethics was presented to the media on 13 April 2013 by Mr Geoffrey Robertson, QC, at Treasury Building in Port Louis.

The latter’s services had been enlisted by the Prime Minister, Dr Navinchandra Ramgoolam, to review Mauritius’ media law.

The report recommends changes to law and practice and proposes the adoption of a Freedom of Information law to give the media access to important Government documents and information as well as the adoption of a law to protect journalists’ sources of information.

Other proposals include:

• The abolition of old colonial laws and punishing sedition
• The reinvigoration of the Media Trust and be partly funded by Government to train journalists in ethical and professional standards
• The appointment of an Ombudsperson by the Judicial and Legal Service Commission.  The Ombudsperson must have no political or media connections
• A Media Commission, chaired by a Media Ombudsperson, to adjudicate complaints about inaccuracy and unfairness in newspapers, journals, radio and television
• The Media Ombudsperson would also hear complaints against television and radio broadcasts and recommend to the Independent Broadcasting Authority whether the licence-holder should be fined or have its licence suspended.  The existing IBA Complaints Committee would no longer operate
• The issue of private television licences if fit and proper applicants come forward
• Increase from 20% to 45% for foreign direct investment in Mauritius media
• Reforms to liberalise defamation and contempt laws so that journalists doing their jobs, and editors, are not liable to be imprisoned in case of violation of such laws
• A privacy law similar to that which operates in France and the UK under the European Convention on Human Rights but with a strong public interest defence
• Abolition of the crime of contempt of the National Assembly
• A new law requiring courts to sit in public unless justice cannot otherwise be done.

According to Mr Robertson, any modern democracy has to work out how to ensure that its law guarantees free speech while at the same time providing some protection for individual privacy and a system for citizens to complain about unfairness and inaccuracy.

‘I have refrained from completing this Report until I could consider the reform suggestions of the Leveson Enquiry in the United Kingdom and have adopted several of them, but have rejected its recommendations that newspapers should be forced to publish insincere apologies or be subjected to exemplary damages and million-pound fines.  The Leveson Report ignores the social media, which is unreal in the modern communication environment.  I recommend that the Ombudsperson should issue a declaration of falsity if complainants being damaged by malicious lies on blog sites’, he says.  The crucial element in press regulation is to ensure that the regulator is independent both of the Government on the one hand and the media industry on the other, adds Mr Robertson.

The Report, which also contains a Code of Conduct, can be accessed online.  Submissions sent to the Attorney-General’s Office will be received until 15 September 2013 and will be considered in view of the preparation of the final report.