Morocco promises open media policy

The Moroccan government has promised to communication and media professionals an open policy, marked by efficiency and heedful to citizens' expectations and concerns.

"In light of the guidelines made by King Mohammed VI to give a new impetus to the dynamic of change, the government decided to adopt an efficient and open media and communication policy, a policy heedful to citizens with a view to promoting their enthusiasm to contribute to Morocco's development process," Moroccan Communication Minister, Nabil Benabdallah said in a letter to media professionals.

"The Communication department will see to it that the information sector remain open to freedom of speech, respectful to the profession's code of ethics and built on two major principles: freedom and accountability," the official said.

The government intends to take the necessary measures to boost the media and communication sector and promote the audiovisual media in such a way to be up to the expectations of the Moroccan people and to keep pace with technological development, he said, calling for dialogue with professionals to pool efforts for the materialization of the expected goals.

Morocco enjoys a diversified media landscape, made up of scores of independent, party and government papers in addition to two TV channels (RTM and 2M), a national radio station and several regional stations scattered across the country.