UNESCO promotes community radio and community multimedia centres (CMC) as tools for community “voice” and people-centred development. It is in this context, and in order to stress the importance of community/associative radios for peace, democracy, citizenship and the reduction of poverty, that this symposium is taking place.

It will bring together about 150 participants, including representatives of the Mauritanian Government, international organisations, media professionals and associations. They will analyse the new audiovisual law and look at the same experiences of other countries in order to allow for the emergence of community/associative radios in Mauritania.

The symposium will consist of daily plenary meetings dedicated to the following topics:

• new legislative framework of Mauritania in comparison with other countries (21 July),
  
• impact of audiovisual pluralism on the promotion of human rights (22 July), and
  
• community/associative media as an actor to promote democratic values and sustainable development (23 July 2008).

Through this event, the participants will try to find out how and under which conditions the liberalisation of the audiovisual landscape should take place in Mauritania in order for community radios to develop. Questions related to editorial independence of community media, financing models and technical resources will also be addressed.