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

channel 37 . It also applies to certain members appointed as the "wise men" of the
Higher Audio-Visual Communication Council. Their appointment caused an
unprecedented upheaval in the Moroccan media at the time.
- If the public media was mainly criticized because of its way of covering royal and
governmental activities in previous phases, there hasn’t been a significant change
on this level. These activities still constitute a major part of the news bulletins on
Channel 1, as the radio and TV “royal cell” is considered as the most active in the
mentioned channel. A study on the fields of interest of the news bulletins revealed
that interest in the activities of the members of the royal family and the princes
reached 9.9%, and 61.8% with respect to governmental activities 38 . If Channel 2
kept reporting the said activities professionally and allocating a limited part
therefor in its news bulletins until 2000, it followed the example of Channel 1 in
the method of keeping up-to-date on these activities.
- If the activities of some organizations were banned absolutely from being reported
in the public media outlets 39 , the activities of other organizations remain limited
and are subject to a type of "seasonality" 40 .
- If the public audio-visual media witnessed some attempts of restructuring by
turning the Radio and TV into a national company and subject it, besides "Suriad
Company-Channel 2", to certain specifications, the Arab Moroccan News Agency
was not subject to the said reform, though its method of operation and preparation
of the product that it delivers remained criticized throughout the previous periods.
On the level of the written press, although the past six years witnessed prosperity of
this type of press, and many newspapers were published, and although topics were
tackled with increased boldness, these six years were the period that witnessed an
unprecedented crisis in Morocco's history, as indicated by the following facts:
- Direct prohibition was a weapon in the hands of the ruling party, pointed at the
independent press during that period, as revealed by three occasions. The first
dates back to 1999, when the weekly "Le Journal" was suspended because it
interviewed Mohammed Abdul Aziz, the leader of the Polissario Front that
demands separation from Morocco. This was not the only periodical harmed by
this interview, but the advertisement about the newspaper's front page on Channel
2 led to the dismissal of the team running the channel (the general manager, the
news director…). The second dates back to 2000, when three newspapers were
suspended at the same time (The Newspaper (al-Saheefa), "Le Journal" and
"Demain") for publishing a letter of a former opposition member in which he said
that the Moroccan Left conspired with General Mohammed Oufkir, in an attempt
to topple the regime of Hassan II. This was the first time that such a number of
newspapers were suspended all at the same time. The third occasion was
embodied in banning "Justice and Charity" newspaper, which is the official
mouthpiece of the Islamic party that bears this name.
37 Many events were tackled by different newspapers on the privileges enjoyed by the news directress
at Channel 2, SamiraSitayil, among the King's entourage, and the conflict of power between her and
Mostafa Benali, the director-general of the same channel.
38 Abdel-Nasser Fathallah: "Applaud for the Speech of the leader" that is mentioned above.
39 It is related to Justice, Charity and the Democratic Methodology in the first place….
40 It is related to the activities of opposition political organizations (leftists and Islamic). The
Independence Party, which is a principal party in Parliament and the government, had previously
complained about its exclusion, particularly from programs broadcast by Channel 2.