Restrictions on the Moroccan Press Under King Mohammed VI

Despite early media praise for King Mohammed VI’s reforms, critics quickly realized that these were superficial actions intended more to solidify monarchical power than to increase civil liberties.

by Agatha Koprowski

The young, good-looking Mohammed VI ascended to the Moroccan throne in 1999, in a changing political climate. Throughout the 1990s, the monarchy had slowly begun dismantling the autocratic state that had previously existed. Mohammed VI seemed the ideal monarch to continue these reforms and to bring Morocco into the twenty-first century. Western educated and fluent in several European languages, Mohammed was well aware of Morocco’s unique geographic position as the bridge between east and west, and spent the first years of his reign pursuing a closer relationship with his European Union neighbors and American allies, both symbolically and diplomatically. By 2004, he had signed Free Trade Agreements with both the U.S. and the E.U. and the Instance Equité et Reconciliation, Morocco’s version of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, had begun its investigation into crimes committed by the state during the rule of his father Hassan II. In an important development for human rights, Morocco’s new Personal Status Code came into effect in February 2004, significantly modifying the 1956 code, which had been based loosely on traditional Islamic Law.

In spite of early praise in domestic and international media for these reforms, critics quickly realized that Mohammed VI’s calls for liberalization, democratization, and human rights were little more than superficial overtures, and that his actions on these fronts were intended more to solidify the power of the monarchy than to increase social liberties within the country. Corruption within Moroccan politics remained rampant, creating an abiding belief amongst regular Moroccans that participation in the country’s emerging “democratic” institutions was futile; the 2007 Parliamentary elections boasted a record low turnout of 37%, with less than 5% of the voting population participating in municipal elections in the summer of 2009.