Electronic News Media in Morocco

The development of the Internet has brought a new dimension to news reporting in Morocco. Many of the major dailies and weeklies can now be accessed on their own Web sites. The number of Internet users has dramatically increased to over 120,000 in 2002, with 8 Internet Service Providers (ISP) in operation. In 1996 the government created Mincom Ilaycom , a large official Web site with a search engine, for the purpose of disseminating official information about Morocco ( www.mincom.gov.ma ). It was followed by the launching of Marweb.com , another search engine and reference data bank particularly useful for its weekly review of the Moroccan press. In 2001 Morocco had 1,425,000 telephones (including 116,645 cell phones,) 27 AM and 25 FM radio stations (with 6.65 million sets), and 35 TV stations with 3.1 million TV sets. Satellite relays, optical cables, dish systems, and digital equipment now bring Arab, European, and American television programming into every region of the country.

Here are some statistics of communications in Morocco:

·         Radio Brodcast Stations: 58

·         Number of people with Radios: 6,640,000

·         Televison Broadcast Stations: 35

·         Number of people with Televisions: 3,100,000

·         Internet service providers: 8

·         Internet users: 220000

·         Newspapers: 27

·         Number of people with Mobile phones: 116,645