The National Center for Information and Human Rights Rejects the Government’s Project to Reorganize the National Press Council, Considering It a Systematic Assassination of Self-Regulation and Professional Independence

The National Center for Information and Human Rights has expressed deep concern and strong disapproval over the government’s approval, on Thursday, July 3, 2025, of Draft Law No. 26.25 concerning the reorganization of the National Press Council, along with Draft Law No. 27.25 amending and supplementing Law No. 89.13 related to the professional journalists’ statute.

In an official statement, the Center firmly rejected this dangerous legislative project, describing it as a serious setback in the path of freedom of expression and the self-regulation of the profession. The project represents a troubling regression from democratic and constitutional gains and is a clear attempt to transform the National Press Council into a symbolic body controlled by the logic of domination, rent-seeking, and narrow commercial interests.

The statement highlighted that the project, as approved by the government, undermines the essence of self-regulation through several key points, including:

1. Institutionalizing discrimination between journalists and publishers in the Council’s representation by adopting the principle of “election” for journalists versus “appointment” for publishers, in blatant violation of Article 28 of the Moroccan Constitution, which guarantees freedom of the press and the independence of its organization.
2. Imposing the logic of money and monopoly by granting companies with high turnover a greater number of votes, thereby destroying the principle of pluralism and entrenching the dominance of large enterprises at the expense of genuine professional competencies.
3. Stripping journalists of their competencies within the Council by removing the presidency of the Press Card Committee from them and keeping the presidency of the Enterprise Committee in the hands of publishers, in addition to manipulating the composition of the Election Oversight Committee to be controlled by a single professional entity.
4. Adding new punitive powers to the Council that contradict its original role as a self-regulatory institution, including the authority to suspend newspapers and attempts to impose compulsory arbitration in labor disputes.
5. Abolishing democratic rotation for the Council’s presidency and extending the term to five years, thereby depriving the institution of its participatory spirit and turning it into a body subject to loyalties.

In conclusion, the National Center for Information and Human Rights holds the government, headed by the supervising minister Mehdi Bensaid, fully responsible for this alarming deviation in managing a strategic and sensitive sector.

The Center calls on all active forces inside and outside the country to oppose this regressive project, which aims to set the country back decades. It also urges the two chambers of Parliament to free themselves from narrow partisan alignments, assume their historic responsibility by rejecting this poor legislation, and correct its serious imbalances that threaten to stifle the spirit of democracy and media pluralism.

Rabat, July 6, 2025
On behalf of the National Center for Information and Human Rights
Ibrahim Al-Shaabi