Maghreb countries perform poorly on Press Freedom Index

2008-10-29

While Tunisia and Algeria showed improvement in press freedoms in a recent study, things have worsened in Morocco and Mauritania.

By Naoufel Cherkaoui for Magharebia in Rabat – 29/10/08

[Naoufel Cherkaoui] Moroccan Communications Minister Khalid Naciri says the RSF report on press freedoms lacks credibility.

Maghreb countries rank low in the newest Press Freedom Index, a worldwide annual report issued by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

The 2008 report, made public on October 22nd and entitled "Only Peace Protects Freedoms in post-9/11 world", places Tunisia 143rd out of 173 countries. Although showing modest improvement, moving up two places, Tunisia is still the region's second-worst after Libya (ranked 154th).

According to RSF, video-sharing and social networking websites such as Dailymotion, YouTube and Facebook have been blocked a number of times in Tunisia for carrying content criticising the government.

Algeria and Mauritania rank 121st and 105th, both higher than Morocco, which dropped to 122nd.

In those countries and other nations, the RSF said, "the leader's ubiquitous portrait on the streets and front pages of the newspapers is enough to dispel any doubt about the lack of press freedom."

Mohamed Cherkaoui, a reporter specialising in Arab Maghreb affairs, believes that the report is not fair in its judgment and has missed the point.

"To affirm that press freedom is deteriorating in Arab Maghreb countries", Cherkaoui said, "is a generalised stereotypical judgment that doesn't take into consideration the experiences of the five countries and does not rely on an objective comparison of the record of each country in the last 10 years."

Morocco continued its slide for the third consecutive year. In 2006, it was 97th and last year came in 106th. Ongoing lawsuits against reporters and internet users continue to tarnish the country's efforts to improve press freedom.

"It is strictly forbidden to report anything that reflects badly on the monarch or their family and close associates" in Morocco, the RSF said in the report.

Khalid Naciri, Moroccan Minister of Communications, described the index as "lacking credibility".

"The report is full of contradictions," the minister said at a news conference, "since it admits to there being red lines that should not be crossed on one hand, then adds in the very same paragraph that journalists, with their usual boldness, can cross those red lines anyway."

Cherkaoui did admit that press freedom in Morocco has declined, however. "There is little doubt that the improvement of the Moroccan press during the first two years of the reign of the current king is now long gone, or is looked at as a foregone political honeymoon," he told Magharebia.

Mauritania deteriorated the most, dropping 55 places on the index to 105th.

"The democratic transition has halted in Mauritania, preventing it from continuing its rise," the report reads.

Although the report included Algeria in the "countries that waver between repression and liberalisation, where taboos are still inviolable and the press laws hark back to another era," and despite counterterrorism laws that the government reportedly used to curb publications, the country actually showed improvement.

Last year, Algeria came in 123rd, and in 2006 it was 126th.

"I believe Arab Maghreb countries should have been ranked even lower than they are on the index," said an Algerian blogger, on condition of anonymity. "Because not only do our countries lack press freedoms, we lack any freedom in the first place. The majority of reporters in those countries have adapted to the suppression."