The Minister of Youth, Culture and Communication, Mehdi Bensaid, presented Thursday the budget of his department for the 2022 fiscal year before the Committee for Education, Culture and Communication in the Chamber representatives.
On this occasion, he deplored the drop recorded in the level of investments in the field of advertising, estimated at 18.86% in 2021, compared to the year 2020, noting that the press sector has been the most impacted, observing a decrease of 28% compared to 2020.
This decline includes all media pillars, he said, noting the cinema has not experienced any advertising investment in 2021, due to the final shutdown of the sector following the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ads were also down 22%. This decrease includes radio (-13%) television (-13.87%). As for the cinema, the sector has not experienced any advertising investment for the year 2021, due to the final shutdown of the sector following the Covid-19 pandemic, said the minister.
The Ministry of Youth, Culture and Communication is therefore committed to supporting professionals and encouraging them to develop and produce a code of ethics for the advertising professions, considering that this falls within the framework of the the ministry’s efforts to supervise the advertising sector as one of the most striking mechanisms to give a new dynamism which strengthens the construction of the national economy and supports the transformations it is experiencing.
On the other hand, the Minister of Youth, Culture and Communication pledged to encourage professionals to sign a new collective agreement between representatives of press bosses and representatives of professional journalists, in order to protect them. and improve their social conditions.
The minister also provided digital data on the press in Morocco. Mehdi Bensaid thus revealed that, despite the repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic, an increase has been recorded in the number of permits for the creation of paper newspapers filed with the public prosecutor.
The total number of press permits received reached 452, compared to 387 permits registered in the year 2020. Of these, 246 permits were issued in accordance with the requirements of the Press and Publishing Law.
Of the 246 authorized paper newspapers, 113 authorizations were recorded for Arabic-language print newspapers, 36 authorizations for French-language newspapers and 14 authorizations for Arabic, French and English newspapers, the rest are multilingual.
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