RSF protests seizure of newspapers

Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) on Thursday protested the seizure of the most recent issue of the weekly "La Tribune" in a letter to Mauritanian Interior Minister Dah Ould Abdel Jelil. The international media watchdog also asked the minister "to see to it that Article 11 of the press law is abolished", adding that : "Since 1 January 2000, six Mauritanian newspapers have been seized in accordance with this article, which allows the authorities to practise censorship in the country." RSF reported Mohammed F. Ould Oumere, editor of 'La Tribune', as saying that the seizure of Issue No. 137 on 23 August was in reaction to an editorial critical of the military regimes that followed a 1978 coup. A story criticising visits by President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya to various parts of the country also prompted the seizure, RSF said. Article 11 of the Mauritanian press law holds that "the ministry can, by decree, ban the circulation, distribution or sale of newspapers [...] which attack the principles of Islam or the credibility of the State, harm the general interest, or disturb public order and security [...]", RSF said. In such cases, it added, the Ministry of the Interior is under no obligation to justify its decision.