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

In general, journalists associate in the National Union for the Moroccan Press, which
is the only existing syndicate to date 49 . Yet, this does not mean that all of them take
part in its activities or bear membership cards.
The Union had never complained about constrains against its activities, at least during
the past years. The State provides the Union with headquarters. This is in addition to
an annual financial cover as a support, which is part of the budget that is allocated
under the finance law to support parties, syndicates and the national press. The Statute
for professional journalists and the decree applying it guarantee the right of
representation, in addition to the governmental authority in charge of media and
representatives of media outlets, with "the press card committee that undertakes
annually supervision of the distribution of press cards and the task of control of the
principles that the profession's code of ethics should be based on" (Article 7).
Except for the tug of war between the Union and the Communications Ministry under
the mandate of former minister Mohammed Ashaari when the proposals of the Union
concerning amendment of the Press Law, this Union was present in the debate on
reforming the Moroccan media, particularly the written press. The Union initiated
negotiations with the Communications Ministry regarding the amendments relative to
the Press Law. It was also a major partner, whether in the national media debate that
saw the signature of "Agreement of the Debate- Program" or during the preparation
and signature of the collective agreement for professional journalists. The latter
stipulated among other things for the "professional journalists' right to practice
syndical work in accordance with the labor code, and in a pluralistic framework and
without any discrimination, with respect to the freedom of work and professional
conscience" (Article 18). It also stipulated that "every professional journalist is
entitled to have the support of an employees' representative or a syndical
representative, that he chooses and who is a member of a syndicate that is legally
represented inside the journalism field, in procedures of discipline and lay-off as
stipulated in the Labor Code (Article 18). It also gave the elected representatives and
members of syndical bureaus the right to benefit from legal facilities and protection in
order to perform their tasks, to have a bulletin board at their disposal so that they can
perform their tasks.
This right which is guaranteed for journalists is guaranteed for journalistic outlets,
most of which are part of the Moroccan Publishers Federation that has become a
major partner in everything that has to do with the media in Morocco.
1-1-4 The Right to have access to information
The right to have access to information is one of the major difficulties facing the
media business in Morocco. The aforementioned opinion survey showed that although
56% of those who answered agreed that journalists can obtain government and nongovernment
documents at a rate of 70%, the government documents cannot be
49 National Union for Moroccan Press was recently subject to two division attempts. The first time was
when a few journalists withdrew from its conference before establishing a new syndicate called
"Federation of Moroccan Journalists". However, it remained marginal before its activities were totally
frozen. The second attempt was when some of its members, particularly those working in the Radio
and TV, quit and established a syndicate affiliated with a trade-union (Democratic Labor
Confederation).