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

channels, radio stations and newspapers. As for the private sector, it is strongly
present in the press. In addition to these two sectors, political parties and professional
unions, as well as some associations have their own newspapers. This sector is
heading towards more pluralism, parallel to the coming of the liberalization of the
audio-visual sector into force, as clarified in details in other parts of this report.
2-2-2 Pluralistic Media
Moroccan journalism is known as being more participatory and less investigative.
This issue is considered as the remnants of the struggling Moroccan press at present.
However, this does not mean that there is no diverse journalism that includes different
known types of journalism.
If the margin of freedom left to a journalist in the public media and his weak training
did not help guarantee the existence of all of these types, some public media channels
have, on the other hand, developed their business in this regard. In Channel 2, in
particular, important stories are covered, sometimes with complete professionalism. In
this regard, it is sufficient to mention the work carried out by "al-Zawiya al-Kubra" or
"Tahqeeq" or "Moukhtafoun" programs… As for the press, significant steps have been
made.
Pluralism in the Moroccan media exists through openness to different opinions.
However, this is done with a less degree in the public media. As previously
mentioned, some opinions remain repressed, especially those adopting choices that
oppose official directives. Specified persons were affected by the sword of
unannounced ban. The Moroccan radio station, compared to other public media,
oversteps objections against certain opinions and certain individuals. It is unknown if
this is due to the limited impact of radio on the adaptation of the public opinion, in
comparison with the impact of TV, or for other reasons.
As a result of the discussion that this topic triggered in the Moroccan media, the
electoral law imposed the respect of the diversity of opinion during elections,
allocating specific times for the intervention of political parties to promote their
electoral programs and their candidates. However, on this level too, the law fell short
of guaranteeing all opinions, as the parties boycotting elections were denied this right.
Openness to different opinions was reinforced by the decree that established the
Supreme Audio-Visual Commission vested in the commission the power to monitor
the abidance by diversity in speech for intellectual and opinion movements, especially
when it has to do with the political media, whether by the private sector or the public
sector for the audio-visual communication" (Article 3).
The mentioned commission heads towards reinforcing pluralism through the work it
is preparing at present concerning the criteria to be adopted to guarantee the
participation of political parties in the programs of the public media on ordinary
occasions.
The pluralism of opinion is heavily present in the written press which is fully owned
by the private sector. With the exception of very few newspapers where the editorial
line specifies some of the opinions that should not be adopted 102 , the remaining
newspapers, in general, include all opinions, political and intellectual speeches in
Morocco.
102
We mentioned above that there were newspapers that did not publish the opinions of some Islamic
organizations.