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

- The "citizenship call" launched by civil activists, politicians and journalists, some
of whom were close to the King's entourage, constituted another incident that
revealed the presence of part of the public opinion in the pressure exerted on the
press. The call addressed explicit and blatant criticism against what he called the
press that disrupts the "New Era" and hinders the process of "Democratic
Transition", before this call turns into an independent association founded on the
same criticism. One of the leaders of the said call, who will become the president
of the association, discussed in one of his statements the techniques that could be
used to face the said press, including the possibility of those newspapers being
returned via mail to their headquarters as a form of protest and rejection of the
topics they tackle.
- Always in the context of such type of pressures, the individuals taking legal action
against newspapers is a new phenomenon in Morocco. The large number of cases
filed, the nature of the parties filing them 71 , and the nature of topics for which
lawsuits are filed 72 , as well as the judgments pronounced later and the quality of
the newspapers targeted by such lawsuits (independent newspapers) are all
elements which, as verified by the media circles, were part of the pressures
exerted on the independence of newspapers and freedom of the press.
- Two other incidents can be added here. The first is related to the protests that were
called for by political organizations and syndicates in the city of Maysour at the
beginning of 2006 against what was published by "al-Saheefa al-Maghribiyya"
magazine, in that the late King Hassan II used to describe that city as the "capital
of donkeys". The said organizations and syndicates threatened to take legal action
against the mentioned magazine, before the city's representative in the Parliament
raised the issue in the context of an oral question. They were protests that were
clearly aimed at exerting pressure on the newspaper to shut it down.
In the second incident, the temporary National Council of the Veterans of the
Resistance and Liberation Army wanted to join as a civil party in the case against the
weekly "al-Ayyam" filed with regard to "Women of the Royal Palace".
1-4-2 Media and Economic Stability
If we leave aside the public media that is funded by the State, and whose continuity is
guaranteed by the latter, the other media, particularly the written press, is currently
facing major difficulties. Many newspapers and magazines are threatened by closure
at any moment. This is due to two reasons: the first relates to the drop in the sales of
Moroccan newspapers in general, with the sales of the largest Moroccan newspaper
not exceeding 60,000 copies a day. The second concerns the recession of the
advertising market, especially its mal-distribution, and its dependency on political
considerations rather than the logic of the market. This is indicated by the placing of
advertisements in the French-speaking press more than the Arab press, and the
newspapers that are reconciled with the government and approved of its choices more
than those that adopt a critical editorial line. This helps powerful statesmen to control
most economic institutions and major ones in particular, which renders the
70
Mohammed al-Fizazi, a sheikh of the jihadi salafi organization who was detained after May 16
events, stated that if the perpetrators of May 16 events wanted to target the freedom of speech, they
would have blown the "Socialist Union" newspaper and Channel 2.
71
Justice Ministry and other people close to the authorities.
72
The desert in the cases of Ali al-Murabit and "Le Journal", and "Women of the Royal Palace" in the
case of "al-Ayyam".