Mauritius The Prime Minister of Mauritius denies some local journalists access to his press conference

I watched the press conference of the Prime Minister of Mauritius, P. K. Jugnauth on Le Mauricien's Facebook page.

A last question, at 30 mins 18 secs, that was put to the prime minister was about two press groups not receiving the invitation to attend to the press conference. To which the Prime Minister retorted that there was mis-reporting by l'express. He goes on to say that l'express wrote the opposite of what he said in his previous press conference and I quote him in Creole:

Mo faire conference de presse. Ena la presse ki concerner ki pane inviter. Non-seulment pas donne l'information, mais dire le contraire de saki mone dire. B ene banne la presse ki pou dire le contraire de saki mone dire ici, b mo prefere zot pas vini, mo dire ou franc.

... nous pas capave ena mis-reporting, ou bien bannes faussetés ki p metter, ou p coze banne fausseté par rapport a banne conference de presse ki nou faire, banne cozer ki nou dire, au moins sa ti capav rapporter aprés zot envie publier n'importe ki bétises zot capav publier les autres betises ou zot l'opinion.

... mo fek faire ene conference de presse la, aller alle dire quand moi mo p remercier tou bannes volontaires, mo p dire bannes dimounes ki p vinne donne coup de main et seulment zot bizin faire li d'ene fason ordonner, zot alle dire ki mo p dire dimounes pas bizin vini, mo p empeche dimounes vini, mo pas ler laisse dimounes vini. Enfin!

Although the Prime Minister did not specify which article precisely he qualifies as a mis-report of his press conference, I checked a few articles on lexpress.mu and I am assuming that he was referring to the one titled « Pravind Jugnauth met en garde contre des volontaires nuisibles. »

I quote the article:

Le Premier ministre, Pravind Jugnauth, a lancé une mise en garde contre des volontaires qui sont actifs dans le Sud et qui pourraient s’avérer nuisibles au lieu de contribuer positivement au travail de nettoyage en cours.

My understanding of the text is that the Prime Minister warned against volunteers who are active and whose actions could contribute in doing more harm than good to the on-going clean-up process. The article does not say that the Prime Minister is preventing people from going to the regions affected by the oil spill, as the he insinuated in his latest press conference.

The article contains an embeded Facebook video that covers the whole press conference, which readers can watch to see whether the article corroborates with the Prime Minister's statements.

I quote the Prime Minister in Creole:

Mo bizin dire aussi ki bizin prend precautions, tou bannes volontaires ki p envie donne coup de main, bizin conner exactement ki coup de main zot capav donner, parski pas capav nek vini, nek rode nettoyer, rode tire de l'huile, parski bannes experts dans l'environment p dire parfois capav arriver ki zot cause plis di tort ki zot faire du bien a l'environement.

Donc c'est pour sa ki avec ministere l'environement nous p prend bannes dispositions, parski bizin faire donne coup de main dans ene fason ordonner.

Alors nous pour... deja zot tout conner ki ena bannes restricted areas kot dimounes en principe pas capav nek vini cumsa. Et si nou ti ena pou applique la loi mem b la police ti pour empeche bannes dimounes vini. Mais selment nous comprend ki ena bocou dimoune de bonne volonté, p envie aider, donc valeur du jour quand mem noune laisse tou bannes dimounes vini.

Mais la nous pour bizin mette ene l'ordre. Donc avec l'environment nous p travail, pou ena ene system ki bientot zot pour annoncer cuma pour capav distingue entre dimounes ki p vini et ki pou gagne l'authorization vine donne coup de main, bannes dimounes ki conner ki pou bizin vine faire, et apres bannes les autres dimounes ki envie nek vine guette inpe la situation ou bien vine faire bannes zafaire ki contraire a l'environment aussi.

I highlighted part of the sentence that says the Ministry of Environment is working on a "system" to be able to distinguish between people who are coming to help and people who are coming to do things that harm the environment. I am a bit perplexed here as to how they are going to distinguish that. 🤔

Meanwhile, a sponsored post on Facebook indicates that there is a new volunteers group called Mobilisation Nationale Wakashio and they provided the same Google Form link that initially Eco-Sud was sharing on social media platforms for volunteer registration.

I do not know whether the Google Form is the system that the Prime Minister was referring to.