The Press In Mauritius

The Press In MauritiusIntroductionFor the health of democracy, access to nurture is rightfully essential. In any democracy, citizens make up the rights and responsibilities to participate in man matters. Knowledge most a society is obtained through destitute debates, newspapers, magazines, television and radio. All these ar possible when there exist a free and independent crushed leather.In all democratic countries, license of the puppy love has been a treasured right. Press license is a pillar of democracy1. Often, the root on is referred as the fourth pillar of a country2. Such independence should be free from interference of the state. The economy of the liberty of the squash may be d 1 through makeupal or legal protections.In the present chapter, the definition and the richness of the wedge freedom will be analyzed offshoot. Then, the evolution and development of the written and audio-visual put forward in Mauritius will be examined before considering the con stitutional foundation of the freedom of the press of the country.Section 1 Freedom of the pressDefinition of Freedom of the PressEverywhere in the world, the meaning of press freedom differs. Different countries possess variant degrees of freedom of the press3. This suggests that freedom of the press is not absolute in the world4. In universal terms, defining freedom of the press is difficult. Various definitions to freedom of the press have been attributed by different scholars and in many text edition books.Lieberman (1953) defined freedom of the press as the right to serve, without government interference and with law of nature protection, and the most fundamental right of freedom of information5. As for Dennis and Merrill (1996), freedom of the press is the right to communicate ideas, opinions, and information through the printed world without government parapet6. For both authors, the right to sh atomic number 18 information and no government intrusion is among the princi pal(prenominal) elements of this freedom. For other scholars, free press is an independent adversary7performing the wait on of watchdog preventing the State from aggrandizing and abusing the rights of its citizen. Freedom of the press is not only the right of media it is the right of the citizens also.Going back to history, in 1791, freedom of the press was legally guaranteed by the U.S Constitution, congress shall make no lawabridging the freedom of speech or of the press8. Freedom of the press was recognized by the National Assembly of France in the Article 11 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. This freedom was considered to be a fundamental right in Europe and in the united States. In 1948, the United Nations declared it a universal right and adopted Article 19 of the UDHR9.Freedom of the press is derived from the fundamental right of freedom of information. The latter is a homosexual right and the touchstone of all the freedoms. It implies the right t o gather, transmit and publish news anywhere and everywhere without fetters10. The rights to seek and to disseminate information are of particular importance to the press. Along with freedom of information, freedom of facet also plays an essential position in press freedom. In Hossenbaccus v. Le Mauricien11, it was held that Freedom of expression is fundamental. It is an essential creature for the advancement of knowledge and must indeed be well guarded to enable the press to fulfill its social obligation to inform the public. Freedom of expression comprehends the freedom of propagation, publication and circulation of ideas1213. Freedom of circulation and distribution of the matter are also included in press freedom. So freedom of expression and freedom of press are intertwined.The Importance of Freedom of the PressPress freedom is considered as the most important freedom by informal writers, jurists and semipolitical philosophers14. Freedom of the press has always been the most effective instrument for the functioning of a democratic society. It helps in human development and good governance. The role that press freedom plays in our society will determine its importance. An independent media sector acts as watchdog on the government, holding it accountable to the public as well as support citizen to have a better knowledge on political choices. It focuses on social problems and also provides a public forum, for several voices in public debate.On behalf of the public, the press serves as a watchdog to avoid government wrongdoings. Government officials are not always accountable and transparent to the mass. So the fourth estate of the realm investigates in the States records to examine and evaluate, and hold the officials accountable for their actions. The press keeps the public officials responsible to the public as they are anticipate to serve them15. In countries like Taiwan, Brunetti and Weder, free press has helped in reducing corruptions16. There are eight purposes that the press should look forward in a democratic society supervision on the political environment, determined agenda-setting, floors for a responsive and illuminating advocacy, channel for dialog on various range of views, safeguarding the rights of citizen and ensuring they are heard, inducements for people to be involved, respecting the citizens and promoting equality17. However, these goals oft have to face obstacles.In a democratic society, the citizens need to be well-informed in order to make and exchange opinions on the actions of government officials and the pick out representatives. A central purpose of press freedom is to build up an educated and well-informed electorate18that will form opinions on public maters and on their political leaders. Politicians also will have the opportunity to comment on the publics opinion. Thus, everyone will participate in a free political debate which is a eye concept of a democratic society19.Freedom of the press is important in the way that the liberty of the press is essential in arousing public olfactory property and this can be used against the ambition of autocratic authority this is apparent with independent newspapers because they have a tendency to be aware of public discontents and changes. In short, press freedom acts as an agency which controls arbitrary power. A free press can be said to be a market of ideas20which helps people to evolve, mobilize and form new ideas in the public area. For the working of democracy, public criticism is fundamental21.Section 2 Evolution and Development of the Written and auditory sensation Visual Press in Mauritius2.1 Written PressThe history of the printed press in Mauritius can be traced back to 1767 with the graduation exercise printing materials which Pierre Poivre introduced in the island. One year after, the Imprimerie Royale was created. However, the oldest printing was claimed to be an almanac printed in 1457. Isle de France, now known as Mauritius, was among one of the first colonial countries, which owned a newspaper industry.On 13th January 1773, Nicolas Lambert issued the first newspaper Annonces, Affiches et Avis Divers Pour Les Colonies des Isles de France et Bourbon. As the chief editor was a Government incumbent and the newspaper was printed by the Government press, this shows that the issue was barely a free one. The second newspaper started in 1786 under the make Journal des Isles de France et de Bourbon by two young lawyers named Durrans and Brun. This one was absolutely literary compared to the third paper, Journal Hebdomadaire de la Colonie, issued in 1791, which was partly political. On the 5th January 1792, the Colonial Assembly print two weekly papers, one which contained the minutes of its proceedings and its administrative committee. This one was known as Journal des Assembles and the other one as Gazette de Isle de France which contained public notices, advertisements and the other matters of pu blic interest. The first political paper was lObservateur which appeared only in 1816.Nearly one thousand newspapers and magazines have appeared videlicet Annales des Modes des Spectacles et de Littrature Rcratives, Ddies aux Dames22but most of them had a short life-span. There was censor on the press in the colonies at that time. Article XI23of the decree of human rights provided that La libre communication des penses et des opinions est lun des droit les plus prcieux de lhomme. botch up citoyen peut donc, parler, crire, imprimer librement (). This was attempted by the French revolution to put an end to censor. During the English colonization, Adrien DEpinay was the first one to bring Freedom of the Press to Mauritius. In 1832, He was the first one to use the freedom by publishing Le Crnen. It was the oldest French white-owned newspaper and it survived until 1982. Another landmark in the history of the press is the publishing of La Sentinelle. It was founded by Rmy Ollier, a dar k man, in the 1950s. The coloured ownership of the media helped this community in legitimizing their rights in the colonial times. The term coloured changed to the label Creole and in 1920s, a creole family took over Le Mauricien, a white-owned paper which was established in 1908.As from the 1960s, newspapers like Action and LExpress24were introduced and at that time, the Mauritanian press modernized and international standards were adopted. Techniques like reports and personal enquiries were brought in. They are nowadays the bedrock of every press whether written, spoken or visual. Between 1832 and 1973 the superior general format of newspapers was four pages with mostly advertisements. In the local news, there were parliamentary meetings of the Government and of the sole Municipality of the island, Municipality of Port Louis. From this it can be understood that parliamentarians, mayors or politicians were boss of the publishing houses. Today, Lexpress changes to 24 pages as comp ared to before it were only 4 pages and for Le Mauricien it is 48 pages as compared to earlier it was 16 pages. They are the daily papers one in the morning and the second in the afternoon. Nowadays we have Le Dfi Quotidien which is a daily paper also. There are also a number of weekly papers in Mauritius such as, 5 Plus Dimanche, Bollywood Massala, LExpress Dimanche, Le Dimanche/LHebdo, Le DFI Plus, Le Matinal, Samedi Plus, Week End , Star and sunlight Times.A number of papers in oriental languages were also published. Anjuman Islam Maurice was the first one which appeared on 1st March 1883 firstly. Mirza Ahmode was the founder and the paper was published in Hindustani and Gujurati. From 1906 to 1914 a weekly paper, LIslamisme appeared in French, Gujurati, and Urdu. The eminent Indian lawyer, Manilall Maganlal Doctor, launched The Hindustani on 15th March 1909 in English and Gujurati. Mauritius Arya Pratika was edited by Pandit Acshinath Kistoe from 1924 to 1940 and it appeared in English and Hindi. From 1929 to 1973 two papers appeared namely Arya Vir and Zamana with the last one which was launched in 1948. They appeared in English, Hindi, French and Tamil. On 11th August 1932, Chinese Daily was launched and it was the first daily Chinese paper. Then the China Times came in 1953 by Long Siong Ah Keng. Other Chinese language papers were launched Chinese Newspaper (1953-1975), fundamental Daily News (1960-1967), The Mirror and LAurore.The evolution of the written press has been noted in terms of availability, varieties, content and style of reporting. With changes like technology, nowadays papers are printed with the use of computers as compared to before where printing was done in led. As seen above, there was only reporting about news, local and abroad, only. Nowadays, a number of articles have been introduced in the press like editorials on sports, women and children. Concerning accessibility, a wide range of newspapers and magazines are available on the market, locally. Each one differs from each other in order to capture a maximum of readers. Newspapers is said to be our key companion in our everyday life and it will continue to be so.2.2 speech sound Visual PressThe press is not limited to written only there is the audio visual press. Audio visual plays a great role in communication. It was on the 9th of August 1927 that Mauritius experienced its first radio broadcasting, which was done by Charles Jollivet. It was then called Radio Maurice. The station was situated in Beau Bassin and ulterior moved to the Plaza Theatre in Rose hill. Music and news were broadcasted for only 2 hours every day.In 1937, a second station came into population under the name Socit des Radiophilles by Mr P.Adam. It was located at Mr. Adam residence in Forest Side and later transferred to the Town planetary house in Curepipe. The station was used to transmit message to the members of the Socit mainly. At the beginning of the 2nd World War in 1939, the se two displace were controlled by the British Ministry of Defense. Information that was broadcasted was done locally only. By the end of the 2nd World War, another station was set up in Curepipe Town star sign under the aegis of Radio France Libre DOutremers. This station was merged with Socit des Radiophilles and this gave birth to the national broadcasting station as from 1st July 1944 under the name Mauritius Broadcasting Service (MBS). The studio was situated in Plaza, Rose Hill until 1946 when the station moved to Pasteur Street, Forest Side. As from 2011, MBC was transferred to Moka.After the radio, the TV broadcasting was introduced on a pilot basis on the 8th June 1946 as the Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation (MBC). The inaugural broadcast was launched on 8th February 1965 with a transmission of about 3 hours every evening. The MBC was set up in order to build a sense of nationhood and for islanders to welcome independence (that change in 1968). The first out-of-door TV live broadcast was on the royal visit of Princess Alexandra in 1968. Later, in 1973, the process of black and white television occurred. During that year, news editor were in use(p) to record press conference and other local events. On 7th November 1987, television was welcomed in Rodrigues and the duration of 3 hours changed to 13 hours daily. In the 1990s, the two main channels25were implemented.Liberalisation of broadcast media was done in 2002 and this gave the Mauritian audience the choice between the MBC and three other private radios. Radio One was launched on 13th March 2002, Radio Plus on 13th April 2002 and Top FM on 31st December 2002. The MBC radio now consists of 7 stations RM1, RM2, Kool FM, Taal FM, World Hit FM, Best FM and Music FM. The MBC has evolved in digital switchover, thematic channel (Knowledge channel, Movie channel, Tourism and Culture channel) and language channel (Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Telegu and Mandarin). Mauritian audiences nowadays have a variety o f information and different coverage and views of the same stories. Throughout history, the Mauritian press has gained a lot and more is expected to come with, the liberalisation of television channels in the forthcoming years.Section 3 Constitutional Foundation of Freedom of the PressMauritius has a written constitution in which certain fundamental rights are guaranteed as specified in Chapter Two of the Constitution. Of these, Section 12 relates to freedom of expression. It would be useful to refer to the text of these causes of section 12 at once(1) Except with his own consent, no person shall be hindered in the enjoyment of his freedom of expression, that is to say, freedom to hold opinions and to watch and impart ideas and information without interference, and freedom from interference with his correspondence.(2) Nothing contained in or done under the authority of any law shall be held to be inapposite with or in contravention of this section to the extent that the law in que stion makes provisionCompared to countries like the U.S.A, there is no separate provision guaranteeing the freedom of the press in our constitution. Our supreme court has held in Duval v The Commissioner of Police26and in London Satellite Systems Ltd. V State and ors27that freedom of the press postulate not to be mentioned separately as it is already in the guarantee of freedom of expression. The latter comprehends the freedom of propagation, publication and circulation28.The scope of press freedom is special by the interpretation getn by S12 because there is a link between freedom of press and freedom of expression. The arguments for and the limitations upon both freedoms should be compatible. For instance in Cie de Beau Vallon Lte v Nilkomol29it was held that freedom of expression referred to, (in the Constitution), cannot override legally established norms to which it is subordinated and which must be respected the use of words like public order, public morality and rights and freedoms of others. The same applies to press freedom in the press industry.Fundamental Rights and Freedoms that are found in our Constitution are modeled on the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and our Section 12 was borrowed30from its Article 1031. The rights of privacy and free expression are treated as fundamental rights having equal status. According to this view, the two rights must be proportionate. One will not inevitably trump the other32.Freedom of the Press rests on the same cornerstones as Freedom of Expression. It can be argued that there is simple iteration since protection of freedom of expression is already been catered for in our Constitution. This can give rise to the introduction of a separate press clause in our Constitution. Under Mauritian Law, press freedom gives journalists a right to obtain information from private sources on a voluntary basis only. The press cannot compel citizens to release information about themselves which they are unwilling to disclose. A separate press clause may provide this privilege.