Algeria is trying to muzzle the Mauritanian media that does not share its version on the question of Western Sahara. The Algerian ambassador accredited to Nouakchott asked the Mauritanian government to take sanctions against the Anbaa.info site, which he described as pro-Moroccan. This request for censorship was made on December 30, during a meeting with the Minister of Communication, a source in Nouakchott told Yabiladi.
The Mauritanian official tried, diplomatically, to calm the ambassador’s anger, assuring that his government cannot close the newspaper in question. He invited Algeria to bring the matter to Mauritanian justice. This response irritated the ambassador, who threatened to “take action” against Anbaa.info.
The affair then took another turn, with the entry into play of the Mauritanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which complained about the actions of the Algerian ambassador to its hierarchy, specifies the same source.
As a reminder, the same Algerian diplomat publicly accused Mauritanian media, in November 2023, of being in the “pay of an enemy state” of his country. “The enlistment of these sites is done through visas, leisure trips, advertising, corruption and sums of money (…) intended for mercenaries of the pen, who have neither credibility nor influence on public opinion,” he said in a press release.
In September 2011, the Algerian ambassador asked the High Authority of the Press and Audiovisual (HAPA) to crack down on certain Mauritanian media. The same HAPA had also sanctioned two online media last March for “attacking Algeria”.
For its critical editorial line towards Algeria, the Anbaa.info site is deprived of all subsidies and public advertising in Mauritania.
Morocco
