Government censors press, allows creation of new organ

Mauritania’s Ministry of Interior has censored the latest issue of the independent weekly ‘L’Eveil-Hebdo’ which was due on newsstands on Thursday, AFP reported the weekly’s publishing director, Sy Mamoudou, as saying. The ministry gave no reason for the move which, according to Mamoudou, could be tied to two articles on the arrest of a group of counterfeiters, AFP reported Mamoudou as saying. Meanwhile, independent journalists created on Tuesday a new organisation, L’Association des journalistes independants de Mauritanie, in the hope of securing better salaries for journalists, who have faced financial difficulties since the government liberalised the press 10 years ago, AFP said.