List of newspapers in Morocco explained

Newspapers in Morocco are primarily published in Arabic and French, and to a lesser extent in Berber, English, and Spanish. Africa Liberal, a Spanish daily, was the first paper published in the country which was launched in 1820.^[1] Al Maghrib was the first Arabic newspaper of the country, and was established in 1886.^[1]

In 1999, the number of French language newspapers distributed in the country was 130,000 while it was 62,000 in 1981.^[2] As of 2013, 71% of the papers were published in Arabic and 27% in French.^[3]

History

The first newspaper to appear in Morocco was Pedro Antonio de Alarcón's El Eco de Tetuan, which published one edition in March 1860.^[4] Later in 1860, two Spanish soldiers fighting in the Hispano-Moroccan War (1859–60) launched El Noticiero (periodical), which published 89 editions before ceasing in 1861. The period after the 1880 Madrid Conference saw the rise of al-Moghreb al-Aksa, printed in Spanish by G.T. Abrines, and the Times of Morocco, printed in English by Edward Meakin then later by his son James;^[5] ^[6] these two papers would later join and become the Tangier Gazette.^[7]

Al Maghrib was the first Arabic newspaper of the country, and was established in 1886.^[8] In 1908 the Sultan launches "Lissan Al Maghrib" the first state owned official media in Arabic.

El Eco Mauritano (1885–1930) was a political, literary, and general interest periodical founded by Isaac Toledano and Isaac Laredo of Tangier and Agustín Lugaro of Gibraltar.^[9]

Following the bombardment and invasion of Casablanca in 1907, a French daily called was founded at the behest of General Albert d'Amade in 1908.^[10] ^[11] With a conservative, colonial editorial line that rejected any notion of Moroccan sovereignty and supported the idea of making Morocco an extension of French Algeria,^[10] it became one of the most important French publications in the period of the French Protectorate.^[12] ^[10]

Another major publication of the early colonial period was L'Echo du Maroc, which was published in 4 editions: one for Rabat, one for Casablanca, one for the south, and one for the north.^[10] In 1919, Pierre Mas began, his media empire in Morocco, with his purchase of L'Echo du Maroc.^[10]

Due to the French colonial authorities' censorship of newspapers in Arabic, Muhammad Hassan al-Wazzani founded L'Action du Peuple, a Moroccan nationalist newspaper published in French.^[10]

Press in Arabic

Al Maghrib was the first Arabic newspaper of the country, and was established in 1886.^[8] It was a local media, based in Tetouan.

The first national newspaper to be published in Arabic by Moroccans was an-Nafahat az-Zakiya fi l-Akhbar il-Maghrebiya (The Pleasant Notes in the News of Morocco) in 1889.^[13] es-Saada (Happiness) was arabophone newspaper promoting the French position on events in Morocco published at the French Legation in Tangier,^[10] first appearing in 1904. With French encouragement, supporters of Abdelaziz founded as-Sabaah in Tangier in 1904; its editor was an Algerian named Idriss Khubzawi and it published 52 issues.^[14] ^[15] Idhar al-Haqq, edited by a nationalist figure named Abu Bakr Ben Abd al-Wahab, was also founded in Tangier in 1904.^[16] ^[17] After the 1906 Algeciras Conference, the Sufi leader Muhammad Bin Abd al-Kabiir al-Kataani started publishing a periodical entitled at-Taa'oon (The Plague) in response to the colonial press and European colonialism in general.

In 1908, Sultan Abd al-Hafid founded Lisan al-Maghrib, an arabophone newspaper funded by the Moroccan government; it was run by two Lebanese brothers, Faraj-Allah and Artur Namor,^[18] and it famously printed the 1908 draft constitution, as well as open letters to Abdelaziz and then Abd al-Hafid.^[19]

In 1909, the Spanish started publishing an arabophone newspaper called Telegraph ar-Rif, then a newspaper called al-Haqq in 1911 to push their position.^[20] The newspaper at-Taraqqi also presented a colonial perspective and was published in Tangier in 1913.^[21] They were followed by al-Islah, a quasi-official Spanish newspaper published in 1916. These publications were similar to es-Saada in their objective.

The first arabophone newspaper in Casablanca was published in 1912: al-Akhbar al-Maghrebiya, financed by Badar ad-Diin al-Badrawi; in Marrakesh, al-Janoob al-Maghrebi in 1927.

Among the first colonial policies promulgated by the French authorities under the French protectorate was a policy designed to censor the Moroccan press;^[10] Moroccan newspapers, whether Jewish or Muslim, had to receive advanced authorization from the French authorities, while European publications were not required to do this.^[10] The French authorities forbade Moroccan nationalists from publishing in areas under French control, especially in Arabic.^[10] ^[22]

Akhbar al-Maghreb was published in Darija in 1915.

an-Nidthaam was published by an Egyptian in 1924 in Tangier.

Akhbar Teleghraphiya, covering national and international news as well as the affairs of al-Majlis al-Baladi and meant to "disinform"^[23] its Moroccan audience, was published in Fes and edited by Tahar Mahawi Zidan.

al-Ittihaad al-Ghanami, syndicated throughout the Maghreb, was first published in Tunis 1929

al-Ittihaad ^[24] was published in 1927 and covered all the regions of the north under Spanish control.In the north appeared Mohammed Daoud's journal as-Salaam,^[25] the newspaper al-Hayaat, followed by an explosion of periodicals including al-Wihdat al-Maghrebiya published by Muḥammad al-Makkī an-Nāṣirī,^[10] al-Hurriya published by Abdelkhalek Torres,^[10] ar-Rif, and others. Al-Atlas ^[26] was the mouthpiece of the Moroccan Action Committee and expressed the views of the Moroccan Nationalist Movement.^[10]

The journal Majallat al-Maghreb was directed by Mohamed Ben Saleh Maysa an Algerian resident of Morocco working in Rabat.^[27] ^[28] ^[29] In 1937, Said Hajji of Salé founded Al-Maghrib (Morocco), a newspaper critical of French colonialism that was often censored.^[10]

The newspaper Al-Alam, speaking for the Istiqlal Party, was founded in 1946.^[30]

Muhammad Hassan al-Wazzani's ar-Ra'i al-'Aam —the mouthpiece of Democratic Independence Party, which had recently splintered from the Istiqlal Party—published its first issue on April 12, 1947.^[31]

The National Union of Popular Forces founded Al Muharrir, which published its first edition December 1964.^[32] It was edited by Omar Benjelloun until his assassination in 1975.

Jewish press

In 1883, Abraham Lévy-Cohen founded the first francophone newspaper in Morocco,,^[33] to spread French language and culture among the Moroccan Jews.^[34] A man named Salomon Benaïoun started Kol Israel (1891), Mébasser Tov (1894-1895), and Moghrabi (1904), though these periodicals were short-lived.^[35] Benaïoun also founded (1915-1922), which covered Jewish interests in Morocco in two different editions: one in Judeo-Arabic and one in French.^[35] ^[36] Adelante (1929-1932) was an independent hispanophone bimonthly periodical.^[35]

In Casablanca, the Hadida brothers edited Or Ha’Maarav, or La Lumiere du Maroc (1922–1924), a Zionist^[35] newspaper written in Judeo-Arabic with Hebrew script, which ran from 1922 until the French authorities shut it down in 1924.^[37] ^[35] It was followed by L'Avenir Illustré (1926–1940) a nationalist, pro-Zionist francophone newspaper, edited by Jonathan Thurz^[38] ^[35] as well as l'Union Marocaine (1932-1940), a francophone newspaper in line with emancipatory views of the AIU, edited by Élie Nattaf.^[39] L'Avenir Illustré and L'Union Marocaine were both shut down by the Vichy regime.