2 results
10 - ‘The Freedom of No Speech’: Journalists and theMultiple Layers of Authoritarian Practices inMorocco
- Edited by Ozgun Topak, York University, Toronto, Merouan Mekouar, Francesco Cavatorta
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- Book:
- New Authoritarian Practices in the Middle East and North Africa
- Published by:
- Edinburgh University Press
- Published online:
- 18 November 2022
- Print publication:
- 30 June 2022, pp 189-207
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- Chapter
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Summary
Introduction
Article 25 of the 2011 Moroccan constitution clearlyrefers to the principle of freedom of expression andevokes guarantees about ‘freedom of thought,opinion, and expression in all its forms’. Theconstitutional text also refers to ‘freedom ofcreativity and publishing in the domains ofliterature, art and scientific research’, while itbans ‘any violation of the privacy of personalcommunication unless via a judicial order in duecases’. In article 28, the constitution states that‘the freedom of the press is guaranteed. It may notbe restricted by any form of prior censorship.Everyone has the right to express and publish news,ideas, and opinions, freely and without limitation,save that which is explicitly set forth in law’. Ingeneral, the constitution gives civil societyimportant legislative tools through which to expressopinions, evaluate public policies and proposechanges to official resolutions. In addition, theMoroccan public sphere today is sprinkled withvarious media outlets, twenty-eight differentnewspapers, seventeen private radio stations, ten TVstations and at least fifteen regional and thematicradio stations (OJD 2022).
However, the constitutional basis of freedom of speechhas not prevented the Moroccan state from clampingdown on journalists. Through different strategies,newspapers in Morocco are not allowed criticalreporting about the state, especially when it isdirected against the Makhzen, a term associated with thepalace, its inner circle and close associates. Inthe 2021 World Press Freedom Index compiled byReporters Without Borders (2021), Morocco ranked136th, an important sign of a major crisisnegatively affecting journalism and freedom ofspeech in the country. In recent years, practicallyall independent newspapers have disappeared fromnews-stands, while the very few journalists who takethe risk of confronting the state are subjected todifferent forms of harassment through theinstrumentalisation of a judiciary system which hasbecome increasingly under political control. Thecrackdown on journalists started to become moreevident in the context of the coverage of the Rifprotests, and since then it has furtheramplified.
An increasing number of Moroccans are expressingthemselves and their grievances via social media,because official venues are either under differentforms of state control or repressed, while criticalvoices within the political elite are almostabsent.
5 - The Moroccan “Effort de Guerre” in World War II
- from TWO - COLONIAL SUBJECTS AND IMPERIAL ARMIES
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- By Driss Maghraoui, Al Akhawayn University
- Edited by Judith A. Byfield, Cornell University, New York, Carolyn A. Brown, Timothy Parsons, Washington University, St Louis, Ahmad Alawad Sikainga, Ohio State University
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- Book:
- Africa and World War II
- Published online:
- 05 May 2015
- Print publication:
- 16 April 2015, pp 89-108
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- Chapter
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Summary
Introduction
In the dramatic accounts of the history of the Second World War in North Africa, it is often the famous meeting of Charles de Gaulle, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, General Henri Giraud, and Mohammed V at Casablanca that takes the central stage in the memory. Continual reference to the meeting of the major European leaders in Casablanca is indicative of a major historiographical lacuna related to how the war is written about and generally remembered. Very often the history of the empire, its peoples, and how the war affected them has been outside the lens of European historians of World War Two. The important effort de guerre, as French colonial authorities called the contributions made by Moroccan colonial troops, has been largely ignored. Beyond the troops, little attention has been given to how the war altered the everyday lives of the popular classes and, more specifically, the peasants who formed the backbone of the colonial army. How the war affected the overall political, economic, and social conditions in Morocco remains unexplored. Unfortunately, “conventional” Moroccan nationalist historiography has also left these kinds of questions unanswered, because the story of the colonial soldiers does not fit neatly within the dominant narrative of resistance to French colonialism.
This chapter examines the war in the context of Moroccan colonial history and illustrates the place of empire and its peoples in the remembrance of war. My goal is to unpack the different layers of the story ofWorld War II in Morocco. First, the surrender of French forces to Nazi Germany and the armistice agreement in June 1940 represented a major blow to the prestige of the French nation and the glory of the French military. As a result, the empire and its colonial troops became a major symbol for the rejuvenation of the French army and its nation. Colonial troops became the embodiment of the French nation and of la France combattante.