reaction - "State-administered Public Service Broadcasting in Morocco"

In Bouziane Zaid’s paper titled “State-administrated Public Service Broadcasting in Morocco”, the main topic concerns the regulations and the structure of public broadcasting in Morocco, focusing on the post-1990s period.

This period was characterized by the government’s will to create “political reforms aimed at promoting human rights, civil liberties, an open, pluralist media, and establish the rule of law.”. Very important changes were made during this period, but the changes made to the media specifically were not, according to Dr. Bouziane, as “genuine and profound”.

The most important milestone in the changes in regulation for public broadcasting in Morocco, which included the creation of the HACA (High Authority for Audiovisual Communication) in 2002, was the establishment of a framework for private broadcasting. These regulations and reforms were made in the context of Morocco’s efforts of democratization, however, it has led to a conflictual reality where reforms were made both to free the media from state monopoly, while at the same time limiting that freedom due to fears of challenges to the status quo.  

According to Bouziane, Morocco has failed to liberalize the media and free it from being a political tool at the hands of the state government. Instead, Bouziane argues that the reforms were actually created in order to be a seemingly democratic tool against opposing forces.

He argues that this is because Morocco, rather than being a democracy, is a “competitive authoritarian regime”, which is defined as a regime that is “characterized by the presence of some democratic institutions and some democratic practices” but that ultimately fail to reach democracy due to constant violations of democratic principles.

I think that the nature of the regime in place in Morocco makes it very hard to reach democratization, especially in the media. An authoritarian regime cannot have a completely democratic media, or else it would risk its destruction, which is why true democratization is not feasible in my opinion, as the state would never allow it. But I do believe that the regulations that are in place at the moment can and should be subject to changes that would further enhance the liberalization of media.

Bouziane, Zaid. “State-administered Public Service Broadcasting in Morocco”.P.149-163. Web.