Rabat- The third International Conference on the Evaluation of Media Freedom kicked off in Rabat on Friday, with the participation of media professionals from 15 countries, as well as some international organizations.
Morocco’s Minister of Communication, Mustafa El Khalfi, co-chaired the opening ceremony and highlighted the new draft code of Press and Publication, proposed by the Ministry of Communication. El Khalfi said that the draft law is “advanced compared to the current Code of Press and Publication,’’ adding that if it were approved, “media professionals will no longer imprisoned, since this draft code includes no imprisonment penalties.’’
On the other hand, Abdellah Saaf, President of the Center of Studies and Research in Social Sciences, stated that “after the question about the extent of freedom of expression, the attention is focused on the size of institutional, legislative and judicial guarantees.’’
Saaf went on to say that security is a growing concern after the advances made in the field of democracy and human rights in terms of choice and guidance. “It can be considered as a step forward in building the rule of law in Morocco, at least since 2011,” he added.
The conference was organized by the Moroccan President of the Center of Studies and Research in Social Sciences, and will run until Saturday, November 15.
The first day’s discussion panels highlighted the freedom of media and the right to raise political challenge, guarantees of media through the reports of some international organizations, and legal and institutional guarantees of media freedom, as well as the guarantees of freedom of expression in Moroccan law.
The second day panel discussions are expected to shed light on the guarantees of media in some foreign legal system, the judicial guarantees of media freedom and justice, and media freedom, ethics, and self-regulation by media professionals.