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

obtained at the appropriate time (76%) or are unavailable without reliance on a certain
favoritism (71%) or are inaccurate (69%) or are incomprehensive (58%).
In February 1995, the pressures exerted by the National Union for the Moroccan Press
led to the Moroccan government's adoption of the Statute of professional journalists.
The Statute stipulated for the "journalist's right to access news sources in the context
of practice of his profession and within the limits of observance of the laws in force"
(Article 4).
However, the stipulation of this right remained absent from the Press and Publishing
Law until it was amended in 2002. The new formulation of the said law provided "the
different media the right to access news sources \and to obtain the information from
different sources, unless such information is confidential under the law" (Article 1).
Although this right is stipulated in the mentioned laws, this "does not constitute in fact
a sufficient and solid base to enjoy this right" 50 . There are still legal difficulties,
mainly the ambiguity that surrounds its stipulation in the Press Law, as well as the
professional secret and the secrets of national defense.
1-1-4-1 Professional Secret:
The Statute of the civil service obliges every employee to keep the professional secret
related to the "works and news that he learns while performing his duties or on the
occasion of practicing the profession. The Statute forbids the embezzlement of papers
or documents related to the profession and the notification thereof to others in a
manner that violates the Statute" (Article 18). It gives the minister-the employee's
superior alone, the right to release him of this duty.
The said text was opposed by many journalists. State experts worked on reforming the
Civil Service Law, and concluded the said provision was used in an exaggerated
manner. They recommended that the text should be revised in a way that renders "the
information of the public the rule and the professional secret the exception, stating
that such secret should be justified" 51 .
The penal code also binds the personnel of private sector institutions to preserve the
professional secret. It punished by five year imprisonment and a fine of 120 to 250
Dirhams every director or worker who revealed or tried to reveal to any foreigners or
Moroccans residing in a foreign country the secrets of the profession that he practices
(Article 447).
In the same context, the decree that stipulated the establishment of the Supreme
Audio-Visual Commission binds the members and the employees at the High Audio-
Visual Council to keep the professional secret regarding the facts, business and
information that they learn while performing their duties (Article 8). It is the same
commitment that this decree imposes in Articles 15 and 20 on employees of the
Supreme Audio-Visual Commission.
If it is natural that the professional secret concern the people or legitimate interests
that require protection, the "circulation of the text and the domination exercised by
most of the administrations, as well as the culture of secrecy rendered the Moroccan
50
"Right to access information", a document prepared by the Moroccan Anti-Bribery Association
(Transparency Morocco).
51
'In Defense of the Right to Access Information", a French document prepared in November 2005,
"Center of Freedom of Media in the Middle East and North Africa".