Report on Media in Morocco - Arab Center for the Rule of Law and ...

when there is not. Such general concepts make them subject to interpretation at every
moment and according to the whims of the ruling party. For instance, the publication
in the newspaper of the possibility of selling one of the royal palaces was interpreted
as tampering with sacred things 36 .
In its turn, the audio-visual media is subject to legal constraints that limit its freedom.
This is obvious through the following:
- The Supreme Commission for Audio-Visual Communication, in charge of
regulating and codifying this field, is placed under the direct authority of the King.
It is considered as an advisory body placed under his authority (Article 1). This
body gives its opinion on every matter referred to it by the King in this sector. The
law relevant to its establishment was not based on the legislative procedure, that is
usually adopted in promulgating laws, to discuss the said law but on Article 19 of
the Constitution which makes the King the supreme representative of the nation,
and thus, the first legislator. Such a situation might render the margin of the
Commission's decisions related to official choices, and the Commission might not
act freely, whether in the permits it grants or the decisions it issues.
- The King controls over the appointment of more than half the members of the
Higher Audio-Visual Council. The latter includes nine members. The King
appoints the chairman and four members (Article 6). Moreover, the decree, by
virtue of which the Supreme Audio-Visual Commission was established, does not
mention the term of those members, whereas the term of those appointed by the
Speaker of House of Representatives, the Advisors and the Prime Minister, is
fixed at five years that are renewable once (Article 6). This matter raises more
than one question regarding the commission's independence while performing its
work.
- Certain constraints are imposed on the freedom of audio-visual communication,
which is stipulated by the decree that established the Supreme Commission.
Among these constraints are the respect of religious values, preservation of the
public order, good morals and prerequisites of national defense (Article 3). They
are general concepts that could be interpreted as limiting freedom and breaching
the fundamental features of the Moroccan Kingdom, as defined in the
Constitution, among which those particularly related to Islam, the Kingdom's
territorial integrity and the monarchy and those that breach public morals (Article
9).
- Political advertising is prohibited, whether in the public or private media,
including the elections period (Article 2 of the Audio-Visual Law).
In practice, there are many aspects that depict the constraints facing the freedom of
the media in its different forms. In the public media, it is clear through the following
elements:
- It is no longer a secret that the priority in the appointment in the supervision posts
in the public media is not given to the logic of competence but to a person's
closeness to the decision-making circles, and more specifically the closeness to
the King's entourage. This applies specifically to the President-Director General of
the public sector, who occupies at the same time the position of director-general of
the National Radio and TV Company, the news director, and the news directress
at Channel 2 whose powers exceed those of the general manager of the same
36 The director of Demain magazine was the accused in the said story.