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According to the latest World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders, an international NGO based in Paris, Morocco was able to keep the same score when it comes to freedom of expression and press.
Released Thursday, the annual report, which presents the 2019 press freedom barometer, ranked the Kingdom 135th among 180 countries in the world. Scoring 43.98 points (with 0 being the best score), Morocco is positioned 3rd in North Africa, behind Tunisia 72nd, the best-rated country in the MENA region and Mauritania 94th.
Reporters Without Borders’ ranking ranks Morocco ahead of other neighboring countries, including Algeria 141st, and Libya 162nd.
Studying the situation of journalists and citizen-journalists, the index 2018 «saw a great deal of additional judicial harassment of journalists in Morocco».
Prosecutions brought against journalists
In addition to the trials against media figures, Reporters Without Borders pointed out that «authorities deliberately obstructed the national and foreign media that tried to cover the so-called Hirak protests in northern Morocco’s Rif region».
Moreover, the NGO reported that the Moroccan authorities have prevented journalists from «reporting on migration, a subject that is now off limits».
The World Press Freedom denounced the «prosecutions brought against both professional and citizen-journalists, several of whom are currently imprisoned and courts have imposed jail terms and fines». It also referred to the many «foreign reporters expelled», from Morocco.
Although Morocco’s global score slightly improved in 2019, compared to the previous year, the country couldn’t make progress in the report. Only Tunisia was able to make a difference this year, rising up in the ranking.
According to the same report, «Morocco’s drawn-out trials, the sometimes-violent harassment by Libya’s militias and Algeria’s many prosecutions» have made «journalists in North Africa work in an often-hostile environment and struggle to fulfil their role as providers of objective reporting».
For the record, the report was topped by Norway 1st, Finland 2nd, Sweden 3th, Netherlands 4th and Denmark 5th. Turkmenistan, North Korea, Eretria, China, Vietnam and Sudan are at the bottom of the ranking.
