Rabat, Morocco (TMT)- Reporters Without Borders said in its 2016 report on the “World Press Freedom Index” that “media freedom is deteriorating slowly but surely” in Morocco.
While Morocco ranked 130 out of 180 countries in 2015, it ranked one notch down in 2016.
The organization said that the Moroccan “authorities are tightening their grip on the media in order to dissuade them from covering such sensitive subjects as the monarchy, Islam and Western Sahara.”
Three north European countries headed the rankings. Namely Finland (ranked 1st, the position it has held since 2010), Netherlands (2nd, up 2 places) and Norway (3rd, down 1). The countries that rose most in the Index include Tunisia (96th, up 30), thanks to a decline in violence and legal proceedings, and Ukraine (107th, up 22), where the conflict in the east of the country abated.
Regarding Morocco RWB said that “the limited progress seen in three media bills unveiled in 2014 is in danger of becoming obsolete as a result of amendments to the criminal code that are clearly designed to restrict journalists’ right to information.”
The World Press Freedom Index that Reporters Without Borders has published every year since 2002 measures the level of freedom of information in 180 countries. It reflects the degree of freedom that journalists, news organizations and netizens enjoy in each country, and the efforts made by the authorities to respect and ensure respect for this freedom.
The Moroccan Times.
