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Alert

Presidential election campaign being covered fairly by public media, says RSF

(RSF/IFEX) - The following is an abridged version of a 13 March 2007 RSF press release:

Presidential election campaign being covered fairly by public media

After its second week of monitoring domestic coverage of Mauritania's presidential election, Reporters Without Borders said it was pleased to report that the public media are covering the campaigns of all 19 candidates fairly.

The public media have complied strictly with the instructions of the High Authority for Press and Broadcasting (HAPA) to assign free newspaper space and air time to each candidate for their individual spots and announcements.

In addition to the free space, coverage of the candidates' campaigns has also been more fairly apportioned during the second week.

RADIO AND TV: The slight imbalance in favour of candidate Ould Cheikh Abdellahi in the TV news programmes and radio news bulletins noted during the first week of the campaign was corrected during the second week, Reporters Without Borders said.

All the candidates had access to Radio de Mauritanie's "Campaign Report," the organisation found.

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Télévision de Mauritanie also improved its distribution of air time to the candidates.

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PRINT MEDIA AND NEWS AGENCY: The Arabic-language daily Chaab, the French-language daily Horizons and the state news agency, the Agence Mauritanienne d'Information (AMI), all increased the volume of coverage given to Ould Cheikh Abdellahi, thereby reducing the advantage Ould Daddah enjoyed during the first week.

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Recommendations

In light of the results obtained during the first two weeks of monitoring, Reporters Without Borders recommends that:
- The HAPA should issue directives to the public media as regards coverage of the political activities of the two candidates in the second-round runoff, in particular, the need to apply the principle of strict equality in the distribution to the candidates and their supporters of air time and speaking time in the broadcast media and space in the two dailies, Horizons and Chaab, and in the AMI's dispatches.
- The public media should ensure strict equality of air time and talking time in their coverage of electoral news between the two rounds. They should also continue to correct any imbalances that could result from the activities of differing degrees of importance of the candidates and their supporters.

Monitoring role

Reporters Without Borders is monitoring the electoral coverage of the public media - Télévision de Mauritanie, Radio de Mauritanie, the Horizons and Chaab daily newspapers and the Agence Mauritanienne d'Information - from 24 February until the end of the presidential election. The public media have been chosen because they are subject to the electoral law, which guarantees equal access to all the candidates and parties participating. As a public service financed by the state, they have to a duty to behave in an exemplary manner during the elections.

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The monitoring is being carried out with financial support from the European Union and the International Organisation of Francophone Countries (OIF).