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.[4] 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 Budgett Meakin;[5] these two papers would later join and become the Tangier Gazette.[6][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 La Vigie Marocaine 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 Presse Mas, 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 (النفحات الزكية في الأخبار المغربية The Pleasant Notes in the News of Morocco) in 1889.[13]
es-Saada (السعادة Happiness) was arabophone newspaper promoting the French position on events in Morocco published at the French Legation in Tangier,[10] first appearing in 1904.[6] With French encouragement, supporters of Abdelaziz founded as-Sabaah (الصباح) in Tangier in 1904; its editor was an Algerian named Idriss Khubzawi and it published 52 issues.[15][16] Idhar al-Haqq (إظهار الحق), edited by a nationalist figure named Abu Bakr Ben Abd al-Wahab, was also founded in Tangier in 1904.[17][18] After the 1906 Algeciras Conference, the Sufi leader Muhammad Bin Abd al-Kabiir al-Kataani started publishing a periodical entitled at-Taa'oon (الطاعون The Plague) in response to the colonial press and European colonialism in general.[6]
In 1908, Sultan Abd al-Hafid founded Lisan al-Maghrib (لسان المغرب), an arabophone newspaper funded by the Moroccan government;[6] it was run by two Lebanese brothers, Faraj-Allah and Artur Namor,[19] and it famously printed the 1908 draft constitution, as well as open letters to Abdelaziz and then Abd al-Hafid.[20]
In 1909, the Spanish started publishing an arabophone newspaper called Telegraph ar-Rif (تلغراف الريف),[21] then a newspaper called al-Haqq (الحق) in 1911 to push their position.[21] The newspaper at-Taraqqi (الترقي) also presented a colonial perspective and was published in Tangier in 1913.[21][22] They were followed by al-Islah (الإصلاح), a quasi-official Spanish newspaper published in 1916.[22] These publications were similar to es-Saada in their objective.[22]
The first arabophone newspaper in Casablanca was published in 1912: al-Akhbar al-Maghrebiya (الأخبار المغربية), financed by Badar ad-Diin al-Badrawi;[22][21] in Marrakesh, al-Janoob al-Maghrebi (الجنوب المغربي) in 1927.[22]
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][23]
Akhbar al-Maghreb (أخبار المغرب) was published in Darija in 1915.[22]
an-Nidthaam (النظام) was published by an Egyptian in 1924 in Tangier.[22]
Akhbar Teleghraphiya (أخبار تلغرافية), covering national and international news as well as the affairs of al-Majlis al-Baladi and meant to "disinform"[24] its Moroccan audience, was published in Fes and edited by Tahar Mahawi Zidan.[24]
al-Ittihaad al-Ghanami (الاتحاد الغنمي), syndicated throughout the Maghreb, was first published in Tunis 1929[22]
al-Ittihaad (الاتحاد)[25] was published in 1927 and covered all the regions of the north under Spanish control.[22]
In the north appeared Mohammed Daoud's journal as-Salaam (السلام),[27] the newspaper al-Hayaat (الحياة), followed by an explosion of periodicals including al-Wihdat al-Maghrebiya (الوحدة المغربية) published by Muḥammad al-Makkī an-Nāṣirī,[10] al-Hurriya (الحرية) published by Abdelkhalek Torres,[10] ar-Rif (الريف), and others.[22] Al-Atlas (الأطلس)[28] was the mouthpiece of the Moroccan Action Committee (كتلة العمل الوطني) and expressed the views of the Moroccan Nationalist Movement.[10]
The journal Majallat al-Maghreb (مجلة المغرب) was directed by Mohamed Ben Saleh Maysa an Algerian resident of Morocco working in Rabat.[22][29][30][31]
In 1937, Said Hajji of Salé founded Al-Maghrib (المغرب 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.[32]
Muhammad Hassan al-Wazzani's ar-Ra'i al-'Aam (الرأي العام)—the mouthpiece of Democratic Independence Party, which had recently splintered from the Istiqlal Party—published its first issue on April 12, 1947.[33]
The National Union of Popular Forces founded Al Muharrir, which published its first edition December 1964.[34] It was edited by Omar Benjelloun until his assassination in 1975.[34]
Jewish press
In 1883, Abraham Lévy-Cohen founded the first francophone newspaper in Morocco, Le Réveil du Maroc,[35] to spread French language and culture among the Moroccan Jews.[6] A man named Salomon Benaïoun started Kol Israel (1891), Mébasser Tov (1894-1895), and Moghrabi (1904), though these periodicals were short-lived.[36] Benaïoun also founded el Horria / La Liberté (1915-1922), which covered Jewish interests in Morocco in two different editions: one in Judeo-Arabic and one in French.[36][37] Adelante (1929-1932) was an independent hispanophone bimonthly periodical.[36]
In Casablanca, the Hadida brothers edited Or Ha’Maarav, or La Lumiere du Maroc (1922-1924), a Zionist[36] newspaper written in Judeo-Arabic with Hebrew script, which ran from 1922 until the French authorities shut it down in 1924.[38][36] It was followed by L'Avenir Illustré (1926-1940) a nationalist, pro-Zionist francophone newspaper, edited by Jonathan Thurz[39][36] as well as l'Union Marocaine (1932-1940), a francophone newspaper in line with emancipatory views of the AIU, edited by Élie Nattaf.[40][36] L'Avenir Illustré and L'Union Marocaine were both shut down by the Vichy regime.[36]
