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

IV-Chapter Four: Recommendations of Public Policy
At light of the analysis carried out in the previous chapters of this report, and based on
the information and the interviews conducted, it is found that the basic conclusion that
could be drawn up here is as follows: If the field of media in Morocco becomes
mobile, it still has not freed itself from the chains that faced it in previous stages. In
fact, some practices that took place in the past few years triggered pessimism
regarding the future of this sector, especially when it adopted an unprecedented
methodological character. Decision-makers say that they were building a new era on
the remnants of this character 135 .
If we tried now to define the main constraints facing journalism in Morocco and
limiting its freedom and capacity of creating, innovating and facing the changes
witnessed by this field due to globalization, we are able to talk about three main
elements 136 :
1- Continuous practices of the past that are based on the security concern, as well
as the bureaucracy and favoritism in public media, and the attempt to control
the content of press through imposing red lines.
2- Weak financial and technical potentials, absence or scarcity of qualified
human resources, and lack in the adequate conditions for creative and
innovative work, which forces a good percentage of our audio-visual
productions not to be up to the required professional level.
3- Lack of a clear future vision that is based on a well-planned strategy, in return
for the dominance of improvisation, ambiguity and moodiness sometimes.
Hence, our radios and TVs could not turn into modern institutions that are
capable of competing, in terms of production and marketing.
Based on this diagnosis, overcoming these constraints necessitates work in three
directions: the first one is related to the revision of the organized legal arsenal of
media in a way that promotes the guarantees of its independence and freedom. The
second is related to human resources and means to rehabilitate them in order to fulfill
their tasks with professionalism and proficiency. As for the third, it is related to media
outlets and the need to make them qualified to face the prerequisites of competition.
1- Reexamining legal texts
Reform on the legal level has two dimensions. The first is related to the revision of
the existing texts, while the second is related to the formulation of new texts.
On the level of the existing texts, the following is required:
1-1 Constitution:
135
Cinema and TV critic Ahmed al-Sijlumasi in an interview with "al-Saheefa" magazine in issue
No.25 of March 10, p.40.
136
This means the harassments that more than one newspaper and journalist were subject to, and which
took different forms of prohibition of publishing to imprisonment, passing through prohibition of
writing, and finally the lawsuits against press.