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

III- Chapter Three: The Media, Elections and the Rule of Law
How do the media cover elections in Morocco? And to what extent is it impartial and
independent in covering the said issue? Is it free to cover any story it wishes to during
this occasion? Raising these questions has particular importance with regard to the
last parliamentary elections in Morocco (elections of September 27, 2002), for many
reasons:
- These elections were the first of their kind in Morocco's history in the presence of
an independent, active and efficient press that almost dominates the media in
Morocco, contrary to the previous elections which were covered by two types of
press, the partisan press and the official press or the public media. Such coverage
lacked the required impartiality and integrity, as the partisan newspapers usually
promoted the programs of the parties that published them. Even when they tried to
disclose election violations, this was not always accompanied by objectivity. The
same applies to the official press, the main concern of which was to defend the
State's choices and justify the results, and sometimes respond to those who had
doubts about the results. However, the existence of an independent press during
the last elections gave a greater possibility to cover the elections with
professionalism, integrity and impartiality.
- This ballot was the first of its type under what is known as "the new era", which
meant a tendency to overcome the forgery that tarnished the previous elections,
particularly with the significant changes that covered the legal framework
regulating elections, such as shifting from individual nominal vote in a single
session, considered by the former opposition as of the main factors that facilitated
forgery, to a new ballot system based on list-voting according to proportional
representation and to the largest remaining number of votes, in addition to the
adoption of the signs systems in the voting process instead of colors and the
making of a national list for women…
- These were the first elections in which certain parties took part as members of the
government, whereas in the past, they participated in the elections as opposition
and challenged the results of the elections.
- These were the first elections which the media was urged to cover at the insistence
of the Ministry of Interior. The said ministry, which was accused in the past of
faking elections and fabricating the results, tried to change this stereotyped image.
It intensified election-related activities in the media (seminars, media conferences,
advertisements and posters in the different types of media…), and for the first
time, created a website to keep up to date with the election proceedings, even
though the website was shut down one day after the election 118 .
Although all this data is aimed at giving the media coverage of the said elections more
integrity, freedom and objectivity, following up the proceedings thereof showed that
as much as elections were strongly present in the different media and as much as the
techniques used in the said coverage were diverse and developed, the media could not
have access to all the aspects related to the electoral process, either due to the lack of
the freedom in some (the public media and the partisan press) or to the lack of
potential and professionalism in others (the independent press).
118
Shutting down this website was one of the reasons that newspapers used as a pretext to cast doubts
on the integrity of elections.