At a time when the Moroccan press laws are under review, it is maybe time to amend the legislation that outlaws foreign funding for media projects. While many countries have strict controls on foreign media ownership, the regulations pertaining to funding for training need to be more flexible. The problem was highlighted when on the Moroccan cabinet refused US funding for its local media.
Yet there is another view of the situation. Many observers are sceptical about the American push to use the Middle East Partnership Initiative as a way of increasing American influence under the guise of aid. The last thing Morocco needs is for its own media to become a trojan horse for American influence.
In the latest case it seems that the government has taken a sensible and cautious line.
According to the Moroccan daily, Aujourd'hui le Maroc , the government communicated its refusal to the US ambassador to Rabat Thomas Riley to accept money under a programme of the United States administration, the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI). MEPI had offered 100 thousand to 1 million dollars for a three-year project promoting local media with the aim of supporting democracy in the country.
The deadline to apply for the funding is 31 March. However, the Moroccan daily reported that it was unlikely media outlets would apply considering that communications minister Nabil Benabdallah and foreign affairs minister Taib Fassi Fihri reportedly told Riley that the project went against national legislation "forbidding foreign funding to the national media."
MEPI was created in December 2002 by then secretary of state Colin Powell and funds programmes promoting democratic change. The US Congress voted in 2005 to give MEPI A 74.4 million dollars budget for its programmes in North Africa and the Middle East.
Presse : rejet de l’offre américaine
Lors d’une rencontre tenue au siège du ministère des Affaires étrangères et de la Coopération, le ministre de la Communication et le ministre délégué aux Affaires étrangères ont informé l’ambassadeur américain de l’illégalité de l’offre de subvention aux médias nationaux.
La MEPI (Middle East partnership initiative), initiative de l'Administration américaine pour la presse "indépendante" dans le monde arabe, coince au Maroc. C'est ce qui ressort d'une réunion de travail tenue lundi 20 mars 2006 au siège du ministère des Affaires étrangères et de la Coopération entre deux membres du gouvernement marocain et l'ambassadeur US à Rabat. Selon une source informée, le ministre de la Communication, Nabil Benabdallah et le ministre délégué aux Affaires étrangères, Taïb Fassi Fihri, ont tenu une réunion avec le chef de la mission américaine à Rabat, Thomas Riley, pour l’informer que l'"offre américaine" était en contradiction avec les lois marocaines et notamment l'article 20 du Code de la presse qui interdit aux médias nationaux d'accepter des subventions directes ou indirectes de l’étranger.
Tags: Morocco Fes, Maghreb news
No comments:
Post a Comment