November 18th, 2010 by Evan

Maati Monjib, a Moroccan political analyst, has a new article in the Carnegie Endowment’s Arab Reform Bulletin on the Moroccan government’s recent crackdown on independent and foreign media outlets. The regime has become adept at “using roundabout means to portray targeted newspapers or journalists as having violated the law, morals, sacred taboos, or national values,” Monjib writes. On the other hand, officials encourage the formation of government-friendly private media groups. Foreign media outlets have not been immune to government pressure. Al Jazeera and AFP have both had issues registering journalists and maintaining offices in Rabat. According to Monjib, the crackdown is the government’s response to the “increasingly prominent political role” the independent press has played in recent years.

Posted in Journalism, Morocco |