New outcry over possible radio sanctions

There has been a renewed outcry over plans by the Mauritian government to look into "sanctions" against private radio stations, with activists saying this is the only medium through which ordinary citizens can voice their opinions on the government's performance. Mauritius is due to hold elections in 2005 and observers believe that censuring private radio stations could be detrimental to the island nation's democracy. Lalit, a social activist group and political party, issued a statement on Monday condemning the "repression [of] radio stations from which ordinary people can often speak out freely". "We see it as a means of gagging the public in the face of impending economic catastrophe," the organisation said. The economic success of Mauritius is in danger of unravelling, as it is set to lose the protection of free access to European markets for its products that it has traditionally enjoyed. This has resulted in retrenchments in the country's export processing zone, with most jobs being lost in the clothing and textile sector. Sugar exports to the European Union are also threatened, and tourism, the other main foreign exchange earner, has stagnated. The loss of jobs has reportedly caused mounting dissatisfaction with government's handling of the economy, which has been voiced on air, an observer told IRIN. A recent gas explosion in Grande Baie, in the north of the country, added fuel to government's position that radio was spreading "alarmist reports". In an earlier interview, Mitradev Peerthum, an advisor to Prime Minister Paul Berenger, told IRIN that "after the explosion in Grande Baie everybody on radio was suddenly an expert, and there was alarm spread: people were saying it was a terrorist attack. There must be a sense of responsibility, you cannot spread alarm like this". He also pointed out that private radio stations were "very new [to Mauritius]" and that "someone speaking on radio directly could say 'you see that minister, manager, or ambassador is a crook'". Lalit, however, sees a parallel to an earlier time when economic hardships in the 1970s "brought with it a repressive state of emergency in which elections were postponed, the media gagged, and people arbitrarily detained". It said investigating new sanctions for the "abuse" of radio licences by private stations was a move in the wrong direction, and warned of the alleged erosion of human rights in the country.