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2020 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

10. A Conditional Offer: The Strategies Employed in the Field of Power in Morocco to Control the Press Space

Authors : Abdelfettah Benchenna, Dominique Marchetti

Published in: The Independence of the News Media

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

In this chapter Abdelfettah Benchenna and Dominique Marchetti consider the socio-historic transformations that have taken place in the methods employed by the field of power in Morocco to control the press. From the 1950s, an initial phase involved direct political control over the news and its distribution methods. Thereafter, there were two periods when the media landscape really opened up: the creation of non-partisan printed press in the 1990s, then the development of online news starting in the 2000s. However, even then, the political field continued to exercise a form of control over the news, mainly through economic pressure and various mechanisms that, in appearance, are compatible with freedom of the press that is now part of the constitution.

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Footnotes
1
This ongoing research is being done jointly with our colleague, Driss Ksikes. It has been financed as part of a project with Labex ICCA (Paris) and CESEM, the research centre of HEM (Rabat). The historical section of this chapter is a reworked and shortened version of a longer article: cf. Benchenna et al. 2017. In it there are also references to media history during this period.
 
2
This concept of a closed media space was so visible within the Moroccan context that it was qualified by Mohamed Tozy (1989, p. 165) as being a “defused political field”. We often refer to the work of Mounia Bennani-Chraïbi, Myriam Catusse, Mohammed El Ayadi and Frédéric Vairel in our investigation of the way in which contemporary Moroccan political forces influence the media.
 
3
All of the data in this part comes from this body, except when otherwise stated.
 
4
Other factors that could be mentioned include the fall of the Soviet bloc of nations, and the Franco-African summit at La Baule, which was emblematic of the end of French diplomatic support for dictatorial regimes and required Morocco to maintain its “democratic shop-front”. The Gulf War also left its mark on Morocco due to the position of Hassan II in favour of foreign intervention that was seen as “an admission of weakness”. There was also the general strike of December 1990 organised by the CDT and the UGTM but also the publication of the book by Gilles Perrault Notre Ami le roi [Our friend the King], in 1990 which had a significant effect.
 
5
Aboubakr Jamaï, “Au Maroc, le Rif défie le roi” [In Morocco, the Rif defies the King], Le Monde Diplomatique, July 2017, p. 9.
 
6
LMS-CSA for the FMEJ [Moroccan Federation of newspaper editors].
 
7
Ministry of Communications, 2014, Rapport annuel sur les efforts de promotion de la liberté de la presse au Maroc – 2014: cadre de référence et thèmes: liberté, pluralisme, indépendance, protection, femmes dans les médias. [Annual report on efforts to promote freedom of the press in Morocco—2014: reference framework and themes: freedom, pluralism, independence, protection and women in the media] URL: http://​mincom.​gov.​ma/​landing/​demo/​template/​wordpress/​media/​k2/​attachments/​CadreZetZthemes.​pdf.
 
8
See for example Ali Amar no. 176. “L’État lézardé par la vidéo humiliante de Zafzafi”, [The State stunned by the humiliating video of ZafZafi], Le Desk, 11 July 2017 at 04:11. URL: https://​ledesk.​ma/​enclair/​letat-lezarde-par-la-video-humiliante-de-zafzafi/​.
 
9
Maghreb Confidentiel, no. 1150, 2 April 2015.
 
10
Ali Amar, art. cit.
 
12
Editorial by Ahmed R. Benchemsi, “Ce n’est pas une guerre, c’est un massacre” [It is not a war, it is a massacre], Telquel, no. 392, 3–9 October 2009, p. 4.
 
13
“La main de Majidi dans la diffusion de la presse” [The hand of Majidi in press distribution], Maghreb Confidentiel, 899, 29 October 2009.
 
14
According to Wikipedia, it is a Moroccan private investment fund with a Pan-African strategy. Its shareholding is made up of several Moroccan companies and investment funds, and some foreign companies. Its main shareholder is Siger, the holding of the Moroccan royal family.” URL: https://​fr.​wikipedia.​org/​wiki/​Al_​Mada.
 
16
Royal speech on 30 July 2004.
 
17
Document from the Ministry of Communication 2012.
 
18
In contrast with foreign newspapers, the national press seems to have been spared such a penalty since 2009. According to the new legislation on press and publishing, in force since 10 August 2016, “administrative confiscation” only concerns any foreign press which does not comply with Moroccan regulations (articles 30 and 31). This penalty is also used when there is a question of “erotic or pornographic content, or content likely to be used with the objective of procuring either for prostitution or the sexual abuse of minors” (articles 73 and 74). The same is true for content that “incites to debauchery, to prostitution, to criminality or the consumption or dealing of narcotics, psychotropics, alcoholic drinks or tobacco” (articles 79 and 80).
 
19
As Pierre Bourdieu explains (1981, p. 4) in the general political field, this “imposes a censoring effect by limiting the world of political discourse and, as a result, the world of what is politically conceivable”.
 
21
It goes without saying that since each case is specific, it would be necessary to describe their origins and the stances provoked by them. In this section, however, the objective is to simply demonstrate a few general cases that show the tactics used by the Moroccan political authorities to control the media.
 
23
Hervé Rouach, “Sondage sur Mohamed VI: Paris critique l’interdiction de journaux au Maroc”, AFP (Agence France Presse) [Survey on Mohammed VI: Paris criticises the banning of newspapers in Morocco], 4 August 2009, 15:17.
 
24
Le Journal, N° 416, of 7–13 November 2009, p. 20.
 
26
Le Journal, N° 416, of 7–13 November 2009, p. 18.
 
28
In Morocco, Makhzen refers to the State machine.
 
30
Prison ferme pour une Marocaine niant avoir porté plainte pour harcèlement sexuel” [Prison time for Moroccan woman who denies having laid a complaint for sexual harassment], AFP, 24 April 2018, 17:19 GMT.
 
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Metadata
Title
A Conditional Offer: The Strategies Employed in the Field of Power in Morocco to Control the Press Space
Authors
Abdelfettah Benchenna
Dominique Marchetti
Copyright Year
2020
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34054-4_10