Le Mauricien Institutional profile

Mauritius’ belief in non- discrimination offers equal opportunities to women and men in the media

When it comes to gender equality, Le Mauricien ensures that it adheres to stipulations of national laws. There is no deliberate or open discrimination of personnel. For example our constitution says ‘No to discrimination’ and we adhere to that. Deputy Managing Director, Le Mauricien.

Le Mauricien Ltd is one of the main print media companies in Mauritius. Its publications include the daily Le Mauricien, Week-End – which comes out on Sundays, the Weekend Scope – a magazine published on Wednesdays, and Turf Magazine published in French.

Le Mauricien Ltd is one of the four centres of excellence for gender in the media in Mauritius. The media house signed an MOU with Gender Links in October 2011. This MOU stipulates the media house as well as GL responsibilities in the partnership. Among other things, the MOU highlights that Le Mauricien is committed to seeing gender equality thrive in Mauritius.

The media house is aware of the gender equality provisions of national and international human rights instruments. The media house started working on a gender policy long before Gender Links initiated the conversation on gender mainstreaming. However, Gender Links provided the technical assistance to see the document to completion and adoption. The gender policy is a guiding document that helps the media house to adhere to its commitments.

The Deputy Managing Director also notes that the constitution of Mauritius is progressive, thereby making it easy for institutions to adhere to the ‘no-discrimination’ principles highlighted in the constitution. This has also seen the media house hiring more female employees in the last couple years.

Le Mauricien tries to make the working environment as friendly as possible to its employees. There is a sexual harassment policy that is attached to the gender policy. This is written into employees’ contracts as a way of making it a living document. Employees are entitled to both maternity and paternity leave as stipulated in national law.

However, although Le Mauricien has a gender policy, it has not set any targets for gender equity, instead preferring to let individuals take steps on their own. The Deputy MD says, ‘Le Mauricien does not want to force anything.’

Whilst significant gains are being made, the editorial department is still lagging behind, with no clear targets to increase women’s voices in editorial content. Although there are no set targets, journalists are still encouraged to at least have a gender story in each publication. Le Mauricien remains committed to ensuring that gender equality thrives in Mauritius. The Deputy MD is hopeful that the increase in women employees will lead to more gender aware content.