Press freedom decreased in Morocco with more journalists on target, said RSF

Morocco’s position in the press freedom index decreased down 3 ranks, compared to last year, coming the 136th in the world in 2021, finds Reporters without borders.

The NGO announced Thursday its annual report on press freedom in the world, recording the imprisonment of 488 media professionals worldwide, the highest number since Reporters Without Borders (RSF) began counting more than 25 years ago.

RSF said in its regional analysis of press freedom in North Africa, Moroccan authorities have been targeting journalists critical of the government for years. Accused of sex offenses or threats to state security, journalists’ trial hearings are systematically postponed and their provisional release requests are usually refused.

“Radi and Raissouni, [two Moroccan journalists accused of sexual assault] who have been in pre-trial detention for eight and 11 months respectively, have submitted no fewer than 10 unsuccessful provisional release requests,” said RSF.

Algeria came the 146th, as the state keeps manipulating the judicial system to make journalists pay dearly for their reporting, said RSF. While Libya (165th) remains in the bottom tenth of the Index due to the armed conflict between east and west that imposed a state of violence and fear in the country.

Tunisia (73rd), the birthland of Arab spring, has fallen one place in the 2021 Index, because of a surge in hate speech against media fomented by far-right parliamentarians, according to the press freedom NGO.

The number of journalists killed this year, 46, was the lowest since the NGO began issuing annual tallies. Most of the 46 killings were assassinations: “65 percent were deliberately targeted and eliminated,” the report said.

The falling number of deaths since a peak in 2016 reflects changing dynamics in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, where a reduction in conflict means fewer journalists have been drawn to the region.

The World Press Freedom map this year has few countries colored white, indicating countries that are optimal for media and journalists, while the rest of the world is mainly painted red or black, showing the rising level of danger against journalists around the globe

This year, only 12 of the Index’s 180 countries (7%) can claim to offer a favorable environment for journalism, as opposed to 13 countries (8%) last year.

North Korea lost the worst country for journalists’ title this year for the African country Eretria. The peace accord signed with its neighbor Ethiopia in 2018 has unfortunately not led to any relaxation in a dictatorship that leaves no room for freely reported news and information.

RSF also counted 65 journalists held as hostages around the world.
All are in the Middle East, Syria (44), Iraq (11), and Yemen (9), apart from French journalist Olivier Dubois, held in Mali since April.

Since judicial systems’ authority under authoritarian regimes is highly limited, a group of press freedom organizations inaugurated a “people’s tribunal” in the Netherlands to achieve justice for murdered journalists to defend media freedoms in an age of increasing authoritarianism and populism.