Algeria’s obsession with Morocco can be measured by the impressive number of dispatches broadcast by the main Algerian news channel, the Algerian Press Agency (APS). With more than 4,500 negative dispatches devoted to Morocco in two years, the APS is the embodiment of the anti-Moroccan propaganda machine.
In an article devoted to the analysis of content related to Morocco in the official Algerian news agency, the Spanish media Atalayar, came to the conclusion that the news agency Algérie Presse Service (APS) “fulfills the section +International+ mostly negative news about the Kingdom of Morocco”.
Algeria is ranked 134th out of 180 in the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) 2022 World Press Freedom Index, which would also explain the trend of independent media in Algeria and the legal proceedings against press owners and journalists.
“Morocco currently has more diplomatic weight and that weighs. Therefore, Algeria could try to disseminate information via official media aimed at destabilizing its Maghreb neighbor and tarnishing the image of the Moroccan kingdom,” the Spanish news site said.
The APS, “offers a large volume of articles on Morocco in its International section, which may denote a certain fixation on the Moroccan kingdom”, estimates the media, which relies on data collected on the site of the APS.
Between 2021 and the current year, 4,600 articles are listed in the International section of the APS according to an analysis carried out by Internet users, and the overwhelming majority deal with Morocco. And even a significant part of the articles which are normally dedicated to other countries are actually about the Kingdom, and always mention it pejoratively.
These reports also offer a comparison between the APS and the official Moroccan news agency MAP, which shows that the latter covers much less Algerian affairs in its information.
Of more than 4,600 articles published since 2021, in the APS, 3,074 refer to Morocco while over the same period, the MAP agency published 2,300 dispatches in the same section and only 104 are linked to Algeria.
“This could be an example of the Algerian government using public media to attack, in this case, Morocco, its great political rival in the Maghreb,” Atalayar said.
These released figures are not official, however, and further analysis could reveal that Algerian propaganda against Morocco is on the rise. The same source explains that these figures could be only “a sample of Algerian propaganda against Morocco for years”.
According to these data covering the last two years, more than 60% of the international content of the APS is linked to Morocco. “These alarming figures could be linked to a propaganda campaign that Algeria is waging against Morocco, using its public media as a weapon”, adds Atalayar.
Since these figures were revealed to the public and as part of a media offensive, access to the Algérie Presse Service site has been blocked for Moroccan Internet users.
This ban came into force about 48 hours after the publication of the tweet which denounced by numbers the Algerian propaganda against Morocco.
[THREAD] The Algerian obsession 🇩🇿 on Morocco 🇲🇦 demonstrated by the numbers.
Algerian propaganda against Morocco has been proven for years and to illustrate it, here is an impartial comparison of the two national press agencies over 2 years of publication. pic.twitter.com/oHCvJRG7v1
— ⛥ (@DirNiyya) March 1, 2023