102. The Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) was created in 2001 to oversee the
provision of radio and television broadcasting services. Its objects also include the preservation
and promotion of the plural nature of Mauritian culture by ensuring that licensees include, in their
services, programmes reflecting the linguistic and cultural diversity of Mauritius. A Standards
Committee set up under the IBA is responsible for the drawing up of a code of ethics for licensees
and a code of advertising practice.
103. The Code of Conduct for Broadcasting Services, in its Preamble, stresses on the upholding
of the fundamental principle “that the freedom of all broadcasting licensees is indivisible from,
and subject to, the same restraints as those relevant to the individual person, and is founded on the
individual’s right to be informed and to freely receive and disseminate opinions.”
104. Broadcasting licensees may not broadcast “any material which is indecent, obscene or
offensive to public morals or offensive to the religious convictions or feelings of any section of
the population or likely to prejudice the safety of the State or the public order or relations between
sections of the population.
105. The Authority has set up a Complaints Committee which considers and adjudicates, inter
alia, on any complaint of breaches or anticipated breaches of the codes and unjust or unfair
treatment or the likelihood of such treatment in a broadcast programme. Upon complaints made to
the police, an investigation is carried out by the police and if charges are found to be substantiated,
the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions advises prosecution.
106. The number of cases pertaining to acts of racial discrimination or incitement to racial hatred
reported and prosecuted by the Police and outcomes thereof are as follows –
Section 106 (outrage against public and religious morality) and section 282 (Stirring up
racial discrimination) of the Criminal Code have been amended in 2018 and has been broadened
to capture radio communication, and technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless,
optical and electromagnetic capabilities, and writing in different forms which includes writing by
electronic means, communication in the form of speed or other sound.
TRUTH AND JUSTICE COMMISSION
107. The Truth and Justice Commission was set up under the Truth and Justice Commission Act
in 2008. It started its operation in March 2009. The Commission had, as its mandate in terms
of section 3(2) made an assessment of the consequences of slavery and indentured labour
during the colonial period up to the present.
Section (4) of the Act made provision for the –
conduct of inquiries into slavery and indentured labour in Mauritius during the
37