A third world country, Mauritania was long in having a private media. From independence in 1961 up to 1988, there was no private media. Freedom of expression was constrained.

At that time, the one-party dictatorship, which was in vogue in the third world relied on state-owned media for its own propaganda.

The first Constitution and the various military charters by which the military led the country up to 1991 did not make any mention of the freedom of expression unlike the 1991 Constitution which was the foundation of all the legal instruments adopted to promote freedom of expression in Mauritania, even if in either case there were violations here and there.