university of mauritius

Launch of proceedings “Countering Disinformation: Ensuring an Open and Transparent Infoscape”

18/10/2023 By christina Leave a Comment

On Thursday 5th October 2023, during the Africa Facts Summit 2023, we launched the proceedings of the workshop “Countering Disinformation: Ensuring an Open and Transparent Infoscape” which was held in May 2023 with the support of the Australian High Commission in Mauritius.

We also presented the key findings from the workshop as well as the Pledge on Countering Disinformation which was signed in May by representatives of the 3 main private media houses and of the national TV station.

Participants in the panel discussions held in May 2023 were professionals from the three main private media groups (namely Bernard Delaitre, Director of Le Mauricien, Iqbal Ahmed Khan from La Sentinelle and Prem Sewpaul from DefiMedia), the national broadcaster (Ashok Beeharry from the MBC), regulatory bodies (namely Drudeisha Madhub, Data Commissioner and Trilok Dabeesing from ICTA) and a media trainer/consultant (Jean-Luc Mootoosamy from Media Expertise).

On Friday 13th October 2023, we officially remitted copies of the publication to the Chargée d’Affaires of the Australian High Commission in Mauritius, Her Excellency Mrs Katie Lalor, and to the Senior Political and Public Diplomacy Officer, Mrs Yasmina Hosanoo, at the University of Mauritius.

Roukaya Kasenally, Christina Chan-Meetoo, H.E. Katie Lalor and Yasmina Hosanoo

The full proceedings can be downloaded from: https://bit.ly/countering-disinfo-ebook

The pledge to counter disinformation which was readily signed by media professionals can also be seen at: https://bit.ly/pledge-countering-disinformation

We thank Africa Check for giving us the opportunity to present the proceedings during the Africa Facts Summit 2023 and the Australia High Commission in Mauritius for supporting us in these initiatives.

Media as Agents of Democracy

01/07/2017 By christina Leave a Comment

Here are the slides I had prepared for my paper presentation at the Conference “Mauritius after 50 Years of Independence: Charting the Way Forward” which was held from 28 to 30 June 2017 at the University of Mauritius in collaboration with the Mauritius Research Council.

Interview: Le travail au niveau de notre identité collective est inachevé

29/06/2017 By christina Leave a Comment

Cette interview a été publiée le 29 juin 2017 dans Le Défi Quotidien.

L’Université de Maurice, en association avec le Mauritius Research Council, organise depuis le 28 juin une conférence internationale sur le thème « Mauritius after 50 years of Independence : Charting the Way Before ». Christina Chan Meetoo, qui est Senior Lecturer en communication et média et qui coorganise la conférence, nous donne sa lecture.

Pourquoi avoir recherché la contribution de chercheurs étrangers pour cette conférence ? Quel est leur dénominateur commun ?
Notre appel à participation ne visait pas des chercheurs étrangers de manière spécifique. En fait et ce depuis plusieurs mois, nous avons fait circuler un appel à communication de manière très large dans le monde académique. Sachez que nous avons été surpris par l’engouement des chercheurs tant locaux qu’étrangers.

Nous comptons plus d’une soixantaine de délégués, dont 50 chercheurs présentant 40 communications orales. Ils viennent de 23 institutions universitaires de 17 pays participants, dont Maurice. La moitié d’entre eux sont des Mauriciens et c’est normal. Quant aux chercheurs étrangers, nous avons été étonnés de voir autant d’études déjà consacrées à notre île.

À une année des célébrations d’un demi-siècle de l’Indépendance de Maurice, pourquoi estimez-vous que ce bilan-réflexion d’envergure et inédite est nécessaire ?
Cinquante ans c’est à la fois peu et beaucoup. C’est un âge relativement jeune dans le grand schéma de l’histoire, mais c’est aussi la maturité à l’échelle du temps de la vie humaine. Nous sommes à une période charnière durant laquelle plusieurs générations se côtoient. Les plus anciens peuvent encore témoigner de l’histoire à partir de la période entourant l’octroi de l’indépendance.

Il est impératif que ces connaissances soient transmises aux jeunes générations avant qu’elles ne se perdent, d’autant qu’il y a eu, entre-temps, une certaine forme d’amnésie au niveau des institutions et des individus. Une conférence comme celle-ci permet de prendre de la distance de manière plus objective et analytique sur notre passé et notre présent et pourquoi pas, notre avenir en tant que nation.

Il faut commencer par reconnaître que Maurice a accompli pas mal de choses pour un pays sorti du joug de deux colonisations successives avec une population aussi diverse et sans grandes ressources naturelles. Nous sommes souvent érigés en modèle de réussite économique et social.

Cependant, nous avons toujours la sensation que l’on peut mieux faire. Nous avons des unfinished businesses en ce qui concerne notre identité collective et notre vivre-ensemble. Il y a encore des sources de tensions subtiles qui nous fragilisent, tant du point de vue ethno-religieux que socio-économique. Comment peut-on expliquer ces paradoxes qui sous-tendent la réussite mauricienne ? Telle était une des questions centrales de notre démarche en organisant cette conférence vigoureusement soutenue par l’Université de Maurice, le Mauritius Council et des sponsors des secteurs public et privé.

« Nous avons créé une manière de vivre-ensemble spécifique. Il s’agit de l’étayer davantage, de lui apporter plus de substance et de corps afin qu’elle se pérennise et ne se manifeste plus uniquement de manière sporadique. »

Avez-vous le sentiment que la réalisation d’un État-nation, du sens d’appartenance nationale et républicaine soit restée inachevée ?
Certainement. Même si je préfère rester optimiste sur notre potentiel à nous forger une vraie identité nationale. Nous avons créé, sans véritablement chercher à le faire consciemment, une manière de vivre-ensemble spécifique. Il s’agit de l’étayer davantage, de lui apporter plus de substance et de corps afin qu’elle se pérennise et ne se manifeste plus uniquement de manière sporadique. Il faut créer un vrai projet de société.

Ce qui nous a freinés dans ce sens, ce sont surtout les facteurs systémiques : notre partitionnement en communautés parfois artificiellement créées, notre système de représentation politique, notre répartition historique des pouvoirs économiques et politiques et les failles de notre système de valeurs au sein des familles, dans le monde professionnel et surtout dans le monde éducatif qui a, jusque-là, nourri la gangrène de la compétition malsaine au détriment de la vraie coopération citoyenne.

Le modèle mauricien du développement intercommunautaire et du fameux « dialogue interreligieux » est-il une réalité qui se vit au quotidien ?
Il y a eu beaucoup d’avancées sur le dialogue interreligieux. Il faut saluer ces efforts même si les vieux réflexes d’autoprotection communautaire se manifestent de manière inélégante de temps en temps dans le milieu ethno-religieux.

Au quotidien, je crois que nous arrivons à cohabiter relativement bien, du moment que certaines frontières demeurent infranchies. Il y a des consensus qui permettent de maintenir un certain équilibre. Un équilibre de temps en temps menacé mais qui globalement, mis à part les terribles émeutes raciales des années 67 et 99, demeure harmonieux. Cela dit, je crois que les questions d’identification ethno-religieuse s’estomperont progressivement malgré quelques inévitables tentatives de radicalisation.

La grande problématique qui me préoccupe de plus en plus, c’est la ghettoïsation subtile de notre société. À partir de la classe moyenne, il y a comme une fuite en avant dans les choix de logement, de scolarisation des enfants dans les écoles pour riches, de consommation effrénée et de styles de vie.

La jeunesse mauricienne est-elle capable de rejeter les réflexes « communautaristes » sectaires qui ont longtemps caractérisé certains rapports et qui se vérifient notamment durant les échéances électorales ?
Pour l’instant, la jeunesse mauricienne me paraît peu intéressée, voire informée sur la chose politique. Je ne suis pas sûre que le jeune Mauricien moyen soit conscient des mécanismes de notre système politique avec ses ressorts communautaristes visibles (Best Loser System) et invisibles (désignation des candidats, des maires, des ministres et autres nominés). Il y a tout un travail d’éducation et de literacy à faire à ce chapitre.

À travers ses individualités ou ses regroupements, la société civile peut-elle contribuer à l’édification de ce sens d’appartenance cité plus haut ?
La société civile mauricienne est composée d’une multitude d’acteurs avec des agendas multiples. Parmi, il y en a certainement qui peuvent contribuer à l’édification de ce sens d’appartenance. Cependant, on ne peut uniquement s’appuyer sur ces structures pour l’éducation citoyenne. Elle doit se faire également au quotidien, dans nos foyers, nos institutions, nos écoles et nos médias… partout.

Pourquoi d’autres personnalités, hors du milieu universitaire, n’ont-elles pas été invitées ?
L’appel à communication, même s’il est en priorité destiné au monde universitaire, a été diffusé de manière plus large sur notre site Web et sur les réseaux sociaux. Nous avons eu quelques contributions en dehors du milieu académique. Il est vrai que nos critères de sélection étaient assez élevés car nous voulons produire une publication digne de ce nom à partir des communications. L’idée est de produire un livre de référence analytique et non une simple publication de réclame pour nous faire plaisir.

Quelle sera la suite de cette conférence ? Les « papiers » pourront-ils faire l’objet d’une véritable dissémination « populaire », vers le bas ?
Absolument ! Nous avons préparé un Book of Abstracts. Il s’agit d’une publication, contenant tous les résumés des communications, qui sera mise en ligne pour un plus large accès. Ainsi, les membres du comité d’organisation, dont mes collègues Ramola Ramtohul, Roukaya Kasenally et moi-même, ont délibérément choisi d’ouvrir librement l’accès aux présentations aux membres du public dans la limite des places disponibles.

Discovering the beauty of Rodrigues

20/10/2016 By christina 3 Comments

I have recently been embarked onto a research project entitled “Revisiting the linguistic and ethnographic specificities of Rodrigues” together with sociolinguists Arnaud, Yannick and Yani and ethnographist Daniella. The project was officially launched in Rodrigues in September when we had our first visit. We also conducted a workshop with potential collaborators there as well as some preliminary fieldwork for the research.

The last time I had been in Rodrigues was in 2000 for our honeymoon. So this 2016 visit was an opportunity to meet a large variety of people and talk about life on the island and how it has evolved over the past few years.

Somehow, since I was the only one who brought a decent camera thanks to Avinash, I turned out to be the official photographer over the 5 days we spent there. Though I do not master the techniques as much my husband, I enjoyed capturing the ambiance and expressions of people within their natural environment. I ended taking almost a thousand pictures (which led to much headache for selection and processing). So, here are a few interesting pictures from these encounters:

This 72 year old small shop owner recognised his family on a picture taken in the 1970’s by French researchers.

We went past the bead curtains into people’s living rooms.

This man’s face and eyes carry so much intensity, in contrast with his very quiet and serene environment.

This man seemed very intimidated in the beginning but turned out to have a very smiling and open expression for the camera.

I loved the idea of taking portraits on people’s doorsteps under their dainty curtains.

The oldest woman I met during the trip opened up to me about her life story, how she waited for her husband throughout war, and how life was hard, yet she courageously went through the challenges.

The old man and his boat. He was mending fishing nets in a very windy weather when we met him.

This dynamic woman with her grandchild eagerly accompanied us to meet her brother (the old man near the sea).

Local chicks strolling by under posters of foreign chicks at a hairdressing saloon.

I just loved this article snippet which says everything and nothing at the same time!

The famous “boudoute”, literally a very tough cookie that should be soaked in tea and tastes a bit like “pain d’épices”.

The “Chasive sur pattes” is having a siesta!

A tiny corlourful house in a vast area of empty rocky lands that gives a strange sensation of freedom.

Finally, our team with officials of the Rodrigues Commission for Arts and Culture.

Workshop on Freedom of Information

02/03/2016 By christina 4 Comments

At the MACOSS workshop on the Introduction of a Freedom of Information Act in Mauritius which was held on Friday 26th February 2016, three resource persons from South Africa were present, namely:

Maxwell Kadiri, Legal Officer at the Open Society Justice Initiative
Chantal Kissoon, Provincial Manager of the Gauteng Office at the South African Human Rights Commission
Lola Shyllon, Programme Manager: Freedom of Expression and Access to Information at the Centre for Human Rights of the University of Pretoria

They gave insightful presentations on the introduction and implementation of FOI in their country. You can read a transcript of my live-tweet during the presentations in this summary.

What I appreciated the most was the fact that they were all very thorough in their presentation of the South African experience, listing all issues they faced, the strategies they used to address those issues (such as prioritising grassroots access and incentivising public officers to adapt to FOI) and also the mistakes and lessons learned. They were very honest in their assessment of their own strategies and acknowledged that no system is perfect.

This is possibly the most important thing we, Mauritians, need to retain from our South African peers. There are many of us who wish to make things move forward but we can only do this if we do it together (without trying to take all the credit separately or trying to discredit others as is often the case) and if we are more humble and adopt a can-do, learning-by-doing and learning-from-mistakes approach.

After the presentations and Q&A sessions, we were asked to form working groups to brainstorm on issues and potential recommendations to follow up on the workshop.

I was the rapporteur for the first group and you can read below the report of our discussions and recommendations.

Overall, it was a very enriching experience which will hopefully be built upon to move forward towards a FOI Act in Mauritius. For context, you can read some of my previous publications on FOI and the related topic of media regulation here.

Proposals on the introduction of a Freedom of Information Act (FOI) or Right to Information Act (RTI) by working group #1

Strengths / opportunities
Freedom of expression is already enshrined in the Mauritian Constitution as a fundamental right.
Successive governments have promised to introduce a Freedom of Information Act but this has never materialised. However, it is the first time that a government has published an official announcement by the cabinet of ministers, going beyond political party manifesto or PM and president’s addresses:

Cabinet has taken note that the Freedom of Information Bill, as announced in the Government Programme 2015-2019, is being prepared. The main objective of the Bill will be to promote transparency and accountability in public administration

This represents a tremendous opportunity to move forward and all stakeholders should lobby collectively towards its realisation with extensive consultation and participation.
There is already much information which is published online by government agencies though they are not always presented in a user-friendly way and updated in a timely manner.
There is already a Data Protection Act and a Data Commissionner. The office could be consolidated and asked to collaborate on the FOI.
There are structures such as Citizens Advice Bureaus but they need to be disconnected from the political and used as a real nexus for information to citizens.
There is some media regulation through the Independent Broadcasting Authority but it needs to be disconnected from the political and reclaimed as a really independent body.
Mauritius has a system of representative democracy with MPs who are supposed to represent their constituencies and they do put forward questions to governing parties on behalf of citizens but this is limited. This role should be reinforced and citizens should have better access to their MPs for requests for information.

Issues/challenges and potential solutions

Timeline for the law: One main issue is that promises are often made but rarely fulfilled. For FOI to really happen, there should a clearly identified timeline for the different stages, for example:
- Consultation with all stakeholder groups
- Presentation of Bill, voting of Act and enactment in Government Gazette
- Setting up of process and training of civil servants
- Setting up of independent appellate mechanism (for requests that are denied)
- Deployment (including regular monitoring and adoption of corrective measures
- etc.
Review of conflicting laws: There are laws, regulations and practices which can potentially hinder the application of FOI in Mauritius, for instance:
- The Official Secrets Act
- The human resource management manual of the civil service 5 which prohibits civil servants from giving out information
- Sections of the Criminal Code relating to the dissemination of information such as the ones relating to publication of false news, defamation and sedition as well as laws relating to contempt of court and public gathering, etc.These need to be reviewed in order to harmonise with the application of a proposed FOI Act.

Protection of private information: Currently, there is little protection for citizens whereby the latter would be made aware of any data relating to their own selves held by either government agencies or private entities. All individuals should be allowed access and knowledge of such data as in France (CNIL – Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés) in order to avoid any abuse of personal information.
Delays to process requests: Very often, response to requests from the public take a very long time for many reasons (e.g. delaying tactics, inefficiency, etc.). The FOI law should specify reasonable timelines/delays to process requests from the public as well as to provide the information requested.
Preference for electronic data: Regarding payments for requests made, it is understood that there would be a fee for filing the request and a fee for the printout (to cover costs and to encourage sensible and responsible use of the service).
One possible solution would be to reduce the costs associated with the printout by primarily providing the data in electronic format. This would also reduce ecological impact and facilitate further use by the citizen.
Assistance for fees: However, it is also understood that the imposition of a fee may deter underprivileged citizens from exercising their right to access information. It is thus proposed that a public fund be set up to assist in payment of the fees for processing and printout in case the citizens are under-equipped for data in electronic formats. This would go towards enhancing equality of justice for all.
Appeals against rejections: Some agencies may abuse of clauses for protection of access to data which may be of public interest. In order to ensure this is not the case, there should be an independent appellate mechanism to examine the validity of requests which have been rejected, as is the case in South Africa. However, in a small country like Mauritius, it may be very difficult to identify really independent people to examine appeals. It is proposed that the entity should encompass representatives of multiple stakeholder groups and interests to compound possible lack of indepedence.
Avoiding manipulation and stigmatisation: In a tiny country like Mauritius, controlled leakages and abuse of confidential information about individuals or partial information (resulting in manipulation / bias / sensationalism) may lead to stigma for individuals concerned. There is a need for regulation in the public spehere but not merely by a single entity and certainly neither solely by the State or by media companies. The preferred model is that of independent co-regulation of the media. There should in fact be sanctions for inaccurate information which may be published and which can cause stigma.
Literacy and awareness for grassroots: Very often, elite groups are the ones which benefit the most from systems which are supposed to benefit all. In order to ensure that there is equality in access to information, there should also be solid literacy and awareness actions for grassroots levels, right from school and at all customer care offices in the public service.
Eliminating language as a barrier: Another deterrent to use of facilities given by FOI may be language. But ordinary citizens do not necessarily have a good command of English or French. The use of the Creole language, our mother tongue, should also be admitted for filing requests with proper assistance and while taking care to avoid stigmatisation.
An inclusive working group: We strongly believe that it is important that the working group which will be set up tp lobby for the FOI should encompass all stakeholder groups with a collective agreement and a positive mindset in order to be able to move forward. The media should be taken onboard as well as more grassroots level organisations. There should be no backbiting or competitive attitude as FOI is not for a few but for the benefit of all citizens

Download the report on proposals of Working Group #1

Quel journalisme de service public?

10/11/2015 By christina Leave a Comment

Voici une copie du support utilisé dans ma présentation aujourd’hui lors du forum organisé par le Media Trust à l’Université de Maurice.

Les autres intervenants étaient Ashok Beeharry qui a brossé un large tableau de la situation de la MBC, Ritvik Neerbun qui a évoqué des anecdotes parlantes de l’histoire de la MBC et Jayen Chellum qui a défendu la cause des citoyens. Ashok et Ritvik ont parlé avec beaucoup de franchise de la malheureuse situation dans laquelle se trouve la radio télévision nationale. Le forum était modéré par Lindsay Riviere.