Moroccan government committed to reform communication sector, official says

Morocco's Communication minister and Government Spokesman, Nabil Benabdellah, stressed on Monday the government's commitment to reform the communication sector and engrain media pluralism.

Opening a conference on: "Media, democracy and development: the stakes of reform," Benabdellah reiterated the government's firm intention to carry out a full-fledged reform of the media sector "as stipulated in the (Prime minister's) general declaration before the parliament."

Given the fact that media sector is one of the levers of the democratization under way in the Kingdom, the Moroccan official introduced the audience to the outline of the reform project geared toward upgrading media sector in consultation with related organizations.

The project, he went on, remains open to input from the entire media spectrum, praising the Kingdom's commitment to accompany deep changes taking place worldwide in the information and communication sector.

The media sector has witnessed "remarkable progress" in an environment marked by democratic evolution based on the society's fundamental choices of political pluralism, rule of law, respect of the institutions and freedom of opinion and expression, he went on.

Touching on the Maghreb Arab Press Agency (MAP), the Moroccan official said that MAP needs to carry on its upgrading program, underlining the need to grant it the necessary financial resources for its development in order to extend its correspondents' network and diversify its products.

The government's plan revolves around reforming the audio-visual sector, upgrading the competitiveness of press enterprises, restructuring and developing the advertisement sector, promoting the cinema industry, consolidating the role of the Moroccan intellectual property board, training human resources, redefining the role and attributions of the communication ministry and revamping the government's communication.