16th Plenary Assembly, Nouakchott, Mauritania, 10 and 11 November 2014

The 16th Plenary Assembly of the Mediterranean Network of Regulatory Authorities (MNRA) was held in Nouakchott, on 10 and 11 November 2014, at the invitation of the Haute Autorité de la presse et de l’audiovisuel (HAPA) of Mauritania assuming the Vice Presidency of the network, under the chairmanship of Mr Andreas Petrides, president of the Cyprus Radio Television Authority (CRTA) and President of MNRA.

Twelve authorities from the North and South of the Mediterranean basin were represented at the meeting, which was devoted to two topics of primary importance to the regulatory institutions, namely the independence of regulators and the governance of public media. Both sessions recorded rich and fruitful exchanges and debates between the authorities represented.

A third session concerned the implementation of the Declaration of MNRA on the fight against gender stereotypes in the audiovisual media, in which the network has set up a working group to promote the gender equality in the media, chaired by the HACA of Morocco and the CAA of Andalusia and open to all members.

The 16th Plenary Assembly also dealt with the future of MNRA pursuing in-depth discussions that began at the 2013 meeting in Limassol on the vocation of the network and its mechanisms of action, with the aim to infuse a new dynamic. In this regard, a working group, led by the Presidency, was appointed to formulate concrete proposals to be submitted at the next Plenary Assembly.

Two external experts have contributed to the work of the 16th Plenary Assembly on the theme of the independence of regulators and the future of RIRM.

At the end of the meeting, two authorities joined the network as new members, the Coordinator Audiovisual Council (CAA) of Moldova and, the Independent High Authority for Audiovisual Communication (HAICA) of Tunisia. Thus, MNRA has now twenty-six (26) member authorities representing twenty-three (23) countries.

During the session devoted to the life of the network, the presidency of MNRA was entrusted to Mr Hamoud Ould M’Hamed, President of the HAPA of Mauritania. The vice-presidency was attributed to the Agency for Electronic Media (AEM) of Croatia.

In addition, the network adopted the Arabic language alongside French and English.

The next Plenary Assembly will take place in Croatia in 2015 at the invitation of the AEM.