Those who were sceptical about the winds of change blowing through the Moroccan justice and media laws, will have to think again. New media reform laws are in the wings and already the laws outlawing torture in detention are in place.
Minister of Justice Mohammed Bouzoubaa declared that “the new law against torture is part of a judicial arsenal which reinforces the respect of human rights' principles”.
In an interview published in “Maroc Hebdo International”, the minister affirmed that “torture was already sanctioned by the penal code. It is from now on an object of a special repressive and more severe system. No mercy towards torturers.”
Bouzoubaa evoked a series of guarantees provided by this new law, including the control of the judicial police's activities.
The new law also includes providing people under custody with medical expertise and lawyer's assistance.
“These guarantees aim at avoiding any mistreatment that a person under custody can be subjected to during the preliminary investigations,” said the Minister.
Bouzoubaa talked about the effect of corruption on the justice sector as well as on the social and economic ones. He stressed that “people feel that they can have their rights through corruption. That's why a network of swindlers was composed within the justice administration.”
“We will fight this phenomenon,” concluded the Minister.
Earlier The View from Fez posted about proposed new media laws and the fact that they were to be discussed with media professionals and media owners. According to the Minister of Communication and spokesperson of the government, Nabil Benabdallah, the government intends to “profoundly” revise the press law and that the discussions with professionals are “extremely encouraging.”
In an interview with the Moroccan daily Aujourd'hui le Maroc, Benabdallah pointed out that the government will work for the “integration of all the active political forces in the nation” in this process.
“We will have, and soon, a new press law, in which we have taken account of all that is internationally recognised,” he underlined, adding that “we have done this in concert with professionals” in the domain.
The minister also was optimistic that the law might see the light of day this year.
As to the new audiovisual scene, fusing the two national channels, SNRT and Soread-2M, he said that the government is willing to do more to improve this scene.
“We hope to continue because we have taken the right path,” he explained, adding that “given the great number of channels in the world, Morocco needs to create a certain number of them, both public and private.”
This, the minister concluded, “should lead to raising the level of our audiovisual, improving quality, and diversifying the offer.”
Morocco is to be congratulated and encouraged to continue down this path towards a more liberal society.
Tags: Morocco Fes, Maghreb news
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