The historical evolution of media systems in Morocco: From colonial control to state domination.

 

By: Said EL MARDA

Moroccan media roots can be traced back to the colonial period when Morocco was a protectorate of France and Spain from 1912 to 1956. The colonial powers introduced the print press in its modern form, and Spain played an essential role in establishing several publications in the northern cities of Ceuta, Tangiers, and Tetouan. As early as 1820. Unlike radio, which was controlled by foreign powers from 1928 until independence in 1956, print media represented a site of political struggle. Moroccan nationalists published their first Arabic papers, Lisan Al-Maghreb and Sinan Al-Qalam, in 1907 to promote nationalist ideas among educated Moroccan elites as tools of liberation. The French colonialists responded by introducing several Press Codes to administer and regulate the nationalist print press. After independence in 1956, the print press remained a tool that was used widely in the struggle between the state and the opposition parties.

Local radio broadcasting, administered by the French authorities, began in Morocco in 1924. From the 1930s onwards, the French government increasingly tolerated platforms for nationalist Moroccan radio broadcasters and newspaper publishers, as local and international sentiments grew increasingly hostile toward colonialism. In 1954, shortly before Morocco’s independence, the French government established the first television in the MENA region.

Morocco issued its first press code in 1958, formally regulating the media and requiring domestic newspapers to be registered and licensed by the government, while also establishing a national news agency, Maghreb Arab Press (MAP), in the same year. In 1962, Radio-Television Marocaine (RTM),was established, and the country’s first terrestrial television channel was created. It remained the only channel in the country until 1989. During this era, the cost of television proved prohibitive for many Moroccans and transmission was limited to roughly a third of the country. Radio broadcasts proved far more popular until the 1990s

The internet was first introduced publicly in Morocco in 1995 but was initially slow to take off due to high costs and poor infrastructure. Over the past decade in particular, internet access has become far more widespread and popular, to the extent that Morocco’s internet penetration now exceeds all of its North African neighbours.

Morocco’s media environment became less state-dominated by the end of the 1990s. The media became more reliant on markets than government funding, which allowed for a greater degree of free speech. After King Mohammed VI ascended the throne in 1999, efforts were made to further liberalize the media. The press code was revised in 2002 to reduce penalties for journalistic offenses

The 2004 Audio-visual Communication Law also led to the establishment of a significant number of new radio and television outlets, although the state continued to dominate television channel ownership. Despite this short-lived liberalization process, however, the Moroccan media environment is still largely subservient to government and monarchical control. The government continues to use advertising and subsidies as incentives for media cooperation while failing and fining those who openly oppose it.

Morocco’s media system offers a good illustration of the complex process of media reform during political transitions. As a competitive authoritarian regime, the state uses democratic institutions to reform its media system, while entrenching these institutions via authoritarian laws. Morocco has witnessed periods of tight authoritarian control and periods of reformist tendencies. This cyclical fluctuation has resulted in significant progress in media structure and performance and, at the same time, in the state maintaining its control over the media landscape through various mechanisms of repression.