Research Paper: Freedom of Media in Morocco

Freedom of press is measured to be a part of freedom of expression .Freedom of expression is the right to communicate one’s thoughts and opinions liberally though diverse communication channels. It can be either though giving a speech, write an article… this freedom of media starts to be limited when it touched the liberty of others by either harming others way of thinking, or their personal status. To be aware if a specific country enjoy of having freedom of press, you should first know which media system the country adopt or belong. According to Yahya R.Kamalipour in his book “global communication” it exists six normative media system which are the authoritarian system which is likely to be observed in the tyrannical regimes, the libertarian one that refers to the idea that press should be “free marketplace of ideas”, the soviet theory that focuses on culture and information, social responsibility as a form of public faith, developmental media, the democratic media that holds local information, the developmental model that underline the social issues, and finally the participatory media. Each kind of these media has its own characteristics that we try to apply to countries. Though my paper, I will try to define each one these media systems and their main characteristic, and which kind of media morocco are adopting and measure the level of freedom that Moroccan media have.
According to Shramm in his book the “Four Theories of the Press”, there are four theories which identify the media systems of each country, authoritarian, libertarian, soviet and social responsibility. There are two other media systems added later by McQuail, development model and participatory media. Let’s define each system separately and apply it for countries.
Authoritarian system that media have no freedom and it’s controlled by government, this system promotes censorship and punishment for broadcasting or writing without the government permission. This dictatorship system was applied in Germany with Hitler and Italy with Mussolini and now we can see it in Saudi Arabia where media is very controlled in a point, citizen cannot express themselves. In some countries where this system is applied, military forces is used to direct and control the media.
Libertarian system, the term is coming from liberalism which means the market should regulate itself without government interventions. This system promotes the idea of “free market place of ideas” in other words it’s ruled by capitalist moneymaking rather than government. This system is found meanly in Europe where people have the right to make their voices heard in media.
Soviet model is related to the communist party which denies the freedom of expression, According to Shramm “soviet theory assigned the media a role as collective agitator, propagandist and educator in the building of communism … the main principle was subordination of the media to the communist party - the only legitimate voice and agent of the working class. Not surprisingly, the theory did not favor free expression, but it did propose a positive role for the media in society and in the world, with a strong emphasis on culture and information and on the task of economic and social development….” (2007: kamalipour P. 24)
Social responsibility system means that media is working with capitalist and serving public needs and that’s by acting as a watch dog for the government. Here in this system the media is not controlled by the government and it is working for public interest. For instance, when government imposes new taxes or increases the price of food, media oppose the government and act as the mediator between government and citizens in order to serve the public needs. There are two other models added by McQuail in 1994 development model and participatory media. The development model means that media is used in the development process of the country and that’s by promoting issues such as poverty, education and the access to basic needs. Here in this model the role of the media is to inform and acknowledge citizens to take care of their health by avoiding the causes of diseases and helping them to overcome their social issues. This model is used in countries that are in the transition from colonialism to independence and development.
The last theory is the participatory model which deals with communities and small societies in this model the media is interacting with citizens by taking into considerations their point of views and critics toward the news or the program presented. According to Kamalipour the participatory media “supports the right to relevant local information, the right to answer back and the right to use the new means of communication for interaction and social action in small scale setting of community.
From my own perspective, I can say that Morocco is adopting in somehow the development media theory. After the colonialism period Morocco had to overcome its social and economic issues and develop the country. In that period Moroccan government in cooperation with some international organizations has launched many projects aiming at eradicating poverty and developing its citizens living conditions. Part of the Moroccan media programs is promoting socioeconomic development in the country by showing what the king Mohamed VI is doing in that field. Moroccan media is participating in the development process and that’s by broadcasting programs that help at increasing the level of education in the country; for instance, “Alif Lam” program that help illiterate people to start reading and writing. These kinds of programs are helping a lot people in rural areas to overcome the phenomenon of illiteracy without going to schools. The first concern of Morocco is education because according to some statistics about 50% of Moroccans are illiterate. In order to develop and to move from traditional society to modern and democratic society, Morocco has to overcome the issue of education and that’s why Morocco is spending more than 3$ per citizens every day. Many projects were launched in some radio stations to educate and teach people who could not go to school.
Moroccan media system helped the percentage of children who went to primary school increased from 17% in 1956 to 47% in 1963. From these statistics one can notice that education was the first problem that Moroccan government dealt with, as a result they end up with a significant increase in the percentage of children who attended the primary school. The government doesn’t stop there and they continue to give more importance to this field and thanks to some educational development projects, Morocco succeeded in achieving 92% in 2004. There are also some programs that at the same time entertain and educate in other words edutainment programs, where people can learn and entertain. Media system participated a lot in the development of the country and in the process of moving from tradition to modern society. Transitional society means the process of moving from the colonialism period to a modernity and democracy which is the case of Morocco.(2006: UNDP reports on Morocco)
We saw that Moroccan media is participating in the development of the country, but have they a total freedom? Let’s first define the term, Freedom of media or press is when the governments do not control the media by censoring some of their programs and stopping them from presenting events or special information. The freedom of media means that all people have the rights to express themselves publicly and give their opinion in the media as it was stated by The Human rights declaration: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers” (article 19, UDHR). There are some non-governmental organizations their principle goal is defining and judging the freedom of media in each country such as (CPJ) committee to protect journalist, freedom house and reporters without borders. These organizations are working to develop the freedom of media and expression by looking and identifying if the sate is controlling or monopolizing the media (TV, Radio, and Press). They are measuring the independence of the media by measuring the level and the amount of control that state exert on. Some of these organizations are reporting the level of freedom that media enjoy in each country to International level. In some countries censorship of media is needed to regulate, but without affecting or limiting the level of media freedom. In that case some Non governmental organizations are determining whether the independence of media is limited by the state or not.
According to the worldwide press freedom index Finland, Iceland and Netherlands are the countries where the press enjoys a total freedom. This is because they are democratic countries where the rights of citizens are the primary goals of the government. Countries that are at the bottom of the list are People’s Republic of china North Korea and Vietnam where there is press is restricted. Morocco is considered non democratic country where press does not enjoy total freedom because according to the worldwide press freedom index Morocco is positioned 106 over 169 states. From this statistics one can noticed that even though we have a development media system we still have censorship and control from the government which weaken our media and therefore the flow of information. Moroccan government present news as they want not as it is in order to destroy the image of the country. For instance, al jazera broadcasted the event of Sidi Ifni in the exact way along with the reasons, but Moroccan channels presented only part of the events because Moroccan government did not want to show the whole events and the truth behind it.
From this statement one can notice that Moroccan press still needs more freedom by having independent judiciary system in order to have democratic state that can serve public interest.
Let’s identify the advantages when the press enjoys freedom and independence in Morocco. When the press is free it can play the role of intermediate between states and citizens. For instance, public needs is expressed throughout the press and media so when the media is not controlled by government, citizens can ask for their rights and wants a good example is when government increased the price of some products the media does not broadcast the riots of citizens and the pain of the poor because the state does not want to show the dissatisfaction of Moroccans at the international level. Journalist also could not write articles to criticize government because they were afraid to end up in jails. To make my argument strong enough I can bring the case of the journalist who criticized Moroccan elite without stating his name and the result of that the government punished the author by paying sixty millions Dirhams in order to apologize for this act. It is clear now that in Morocco journalist, TV and radio stations have no right to present or criticize something without the approval of the government. Giving more freedom to Moroccan media can lead to democracy. When the media enjoy freedom and independence it can criticize government rules and public officers who are looking for their self interest instead of serving public interest. By this strategy officers will start to work for the public interest because they know that they can be removed from their positions if citizens are not satisfied. If we say it from the other side citizens’ participation in the decision making of the state will increase along with the level of democratization. I think that by freeing the media, Morocco could develop and move from the periphery to the semi periphery because every body in the country will start to work in the exact way to serve the public interest and the media will have the right to target and discuss the subjects that were in some how shameful in the past when Hassan the second exerted his authoritarian regime. Democracy is the base of development and modernity of the country and without liberalizing media there is no democracy. We can say that Morocco is starting liberalizing the media system and that by applying the concept of globalization of the telecommunication that I learned in the International communication class.
First the telecommunication in Morocco was controlled or regulated by the ministry of communication, in other words the state who was in charge of regulating. After noticing that globalization and development in that sector, telecommunication should be liberalized, privatized and then deregulated. Moroccan government applied this concept by liberalizing the telecommunication sector form states and privatized it by creating an organization “HAKA” that will deal with these issues. The HACA is haute autorite de la communication audiovisual which is responsible for regulating the telecommunication sector in Morocco.
I wanted to apply this concept to Moroccan context and I hope that succeeded in explaining it.
I think that in Morocco there is no freedom of press because when people try to critic or write about an elite, automatically government punish him or her. For instance, the case Nichane the Moroccan magazine that targeted indirectly a topic about religion and that‘s was by writing a jock about Islamic religion. The magazine published an article about the late king Hassan the second. These two publications resulted on some riots and protestation about the Nichane magazine. The government did not miss the opportunity to attack the magazine along with the author by sending them to jails and paying a fine. This event was on December 20th, 2006 where the Prime Minister Driss Jettou prohibited the magazine from publications and closes their website. From this statement one can notice that press expression is very week in Morocco because states is controlling the media. I think that democracy means giving the rights to very body to express their opinions and ideas without any restrictions, but unfortunately it is not the case in Morocco.
To conclude, I think that Media in Morocco should be more liberalized in order to have a developed and democratic society because as lippmann said “A free press is not a privilege, but an organic necessity in a great society." From this statement media play an important role in our society, so liberalizing it will help citizens to express their opinions and also get the exact information without state influence. According to a friend Freedom of press helps in reaching and telling the truth. The truth that journalist could not reach without freedom. I think that I succeeded in reaching the purpose of writing this paper which is “there is no freedom of media in Morocco”.






Reference list


Yahya R.Kamalipour 2007. Global Communication. Purdue university calumet

Individual freedom and the bill of rights: Freedom of the Press. Retrieved May 5, 2008 from international information programs: USINFO.STATE.GOV.
UNDP reports on Morocco 2006