Sunday, 4 March 2012

Censoring the veil in Moroccan TV

This might look far from the main topics that are discussed in this blog, but what happened some weeks ago on the Moroccan TV 2M may shed the light on an aspect of the non-neutrality of the media in  Morocco as a particular  case, and in the world  in general.
In  fact, a veiled journalist was censored because she presented a reportage wearing her veil. In fact, the administration of the TV Channel  banned this journalist from doing  reportage and retrograded her as a redactor for the 13h45 news. This affair has created a buzz in the country, since it is a discrimination.
This affair showed, one more time, that the media are not and can never be neutral. In fact, if they  were so, they would have respected the freedom  of belief as well as the freedom  of clothing.  So, since the ideas that may be vehiculated by the clothes of this speaker  could not suit the ideas of the directoire of the TV channel, neither their visions and orientation,  The speaker was just banned from doing reportage in the land, and was retrograded to a simple news redactor, even though she is one of the oldest journalists in the channel.
From this little "anecdote" that is buzzing nowadays in Morocco, I do realize more  and more that the ideal of neutrality and objectivity of  media is just a myth that is commercialized in order to embellish the image of mass media.  No  matter what happens, the media will  remain a strong  ideological  tool that will   censor  any thing that is not conform  to their ideology.

More news:  http://www.ajib.fr/2012/02/maroc-journalistes-hijab/
http://mgb.minutebuzz.com/2012/02/28/privee-dantenne-maroc-voile-journaliste/

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