| وكالة المغرب العربي للأنباء ⵜⵙⵏⵓⵕⴰⵢⵜ ⵜⴰⵎⵖⵔⴰⴱⵉⵢⵜ ⵏ ⵉⵏⵖⵎⵉⵙⵏ | |
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| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | May 31, 1959 |
| Headquarters | 122 Avenue Allal Ben Abdellah, Rabat, Morocco |
| Motto | "News are sacred, comment is free" or "The value of information" |
| Parent department | Department of Communication of The Moroccan Ministry of Youth, Culture and Communication |
| Website | www |
Maghreb Agence Presse , known as MAP , is the Moroccan government-owned official news agency of the Kingdom of Morocco. [1]
The agency was founded on 31 May 1959 by Mehdi Bennouna in Rabat. [2] [3] [4] It was nationalized in 1973. [4]
The director is Fouad Arif, and headquartered in Rabat. The agency has official international services in five languages: Arabic, English, French, Spanish, and Tamazight. In 1960, the agency launched the African bulletin. It launched the Middle East service as well as the English service on 14 October 1975.
Abdeljalil Fenjiro served as the director of the agency for more than twenty years until 16 November 1999 when Mohammed Yassine Mansouri replaced him in the post. [5]
In addition to providing news, the agency cofounded a national charter for the improvement of women's images in the media with the ministry of social development and family and solidarity and the ministry of communication and culture in 2005. [6]
On 19 May 2023, King Mohammed VI appointed Fouad Arif as the new Director General of Maghreb Arab Press Agency. [7] [8]
The agency has international offices in Abidjan, Algiers, Bonn, Beyrouth, Cairo, Dakar, Geneva, Jeddah, Lisbon, Madrid, Mexico City, Montreal, Moscow, New Delhi, Nouakchott, Paris, Rome, Tunis and Washington. In addition, the agency has a large network in Asia. [9]
The agency has national and regional offices in Agadir, Casablanca, Tangier, Dakhla, Fez, Kenitra, Laayoune, Nador, Oujda and Settat.
The agency has correspondents in Abu Dhabi, Addis Ababa, Ankara, Baghdad, Buenos Aires, Beijing, Caracas, Damascus, El Jadida, Essaouira, Málaga, Marseille, Mexico City, New Delhi, Ouarzazate, Pretoria, Tan-Tan, Taza, Tehran, Tétouan and Tripoli.
Rabat is the capital city of Morocco and the country's seventh-largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan population of over 1.2 million. It is also the capital city of the Rabat-Salé-Kénitra administrative region. Rabat is located on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the river Bou Regreg, opposite Salé, the city's main commuter town.
Mohammed VI is the king of Morocco. A member of the 'Alawi dynasty, he acceded to the throne on 23 July 1999, upon the death of his father, King Hassan II.
Prince Moulay Rachid of Morocco, also known as Prince Moulay Rachid ben al-Hassan, is a member of the Alawi dynasty. He was the youngest child of the late King Hassan II and his wife, Lalla Latifa Hammou. He holds a doctorate in international politics. He is currently second in the line of succession to the Moroccan throne.
Fouad Ali El Himma is a Moroccan politician and senior advisor for Mohammed VI of whom he is said to be a very close friend. Since he became Secretary of State in the Ministry of the Interior in November 1999, he has played a prominent role in the Moroccan State. In 2008, he founded the Authenticity and Modernity Party. El Himma was a classmate of Mohammed VI at the Collège Royale and was the director of his cabinet when he was crown prince.
Mohamed Chafik, born 17 September 1926, is a leading figure in the Amazigh cultural movement. An original author of the Amazigh Manifesto, he was later appointed as the first Rector of the Royal Institute of the Amazigh Culture. He has worked extensively on incorporating Amazigh culture into Moroccan identity and is a leading intellectual of the Moroccan intelligentsia.
Fouad Mourtada is a Moroccan engineer who was sentenced by a Casablanca court to three years in prison for creating a Facebook page of the Prince Moulay Rachid of Morocco, the brother of King Mohammed VI of Morocco. He was convicted on February 23, 2008 of "villainous practices linked to the alleged theft" of the prince's identity. Fouad was initially sentenced to three years' incarceration plus a fine of 10,000 Dirhams, but after a public outpouring of support he was pardoned after fewer than 45 days in prison.
Algeria is represented in Morocco by a consulate general in Rabat, and two consulates in Casablanca and Oujda. Morocco is represented in Algeria by an embassy and consulate general in Algiers, as well as two consulates in Oran and Sidi Bel Abbès. Relations between the two North African states have been marred by several crises since their independence, particularly the 1963 Sand War, the Western Sahara War of 1975–1991, the closing of the Algeria–Morocco border in 1994, an ongoing disagreement over the political status of Western Sahara and the signing of the Israel–Morocco normalization agreement in 2020.
Latifa Akherbach is a Moroccan politician and journalist. Between 2007 and 2012, she was Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of Abbas El Fassi.
Ali Anouzla is a Moroccan journalist, known for his critical articles of King Mohammed VI's rule. Since December 2010 he has been the editor-in-chief of the online media platform Lakome, which he co-founded along with Aboubakr Jamaï. Lakome was most notably behind the uncovering of the Daniel Galván scandal in which Mohammed VI was found to have pardoned, as a gesture "demonstrating good relations between him and King Juan Carlos I of Spain" a Spanish serial child rapist sentenced to 30 years in Morocco of which he spent only a year and a half. The scandal led to unprecedented spontaneous demonstrations against the Moroccan monarch in early August 2013. On 17 September 2013, Ali Anouzla was arrested in a raid against his home in Rabat, officially for having linked to an El Pais article which contained a video allegedly posted by AQIM and hosted on the website of the Spanish newspaper. He was later charged with "Knowingly providing material assistance to terrorists acts". Many observers saw this as a revenge for the Daniel Scandal episode.
The Daniel Galván scandal was a political scandal in which Mohammed VI, the King of Morocco, issued a pardon for a Spanish convicted serial child-rapist named Daniel Galván. The Spanish citizen was serving a 30 years prison sentence. He was arrested in Morocco in late 2011, for having raped at least 11 Moroccan children in Kenitra—a city he had been living in since 2004. The pardon came some 18 months after his incarceration as part of a diplomatic gesture from Mohammed VI to Spain, on the occasion of the 14th anniversary of his enthronement. The pardon sparked unprecedented popular outrage in Morocco where several protests were held denouncing the monarch's decision. This prompted Mohammed VI to first issue a communiqué in which he denied being "aware of the gravity of the crimes committed by Daniel Galvan", then to "cancel" his pardon but only after the Spanish citizen had already left the country several days before on an expired passport—with the knowledge of Moroccan authorities. It was revealed later that this was not the first time Mohammed VI had pardoned a convicted foreign paedophile, having pardoned Hervé Le Gloannec, a French citizen convicted of child rape and child pornography in 2006.
Mohamed Yassine Mansouri is a Moroccan dignitary who is serving the director of Morocco's external intelligence agency, the General Directorate for Studies and Documentation since February 16, 2005. He previously served as the director of the Moroccan state-owned press agency, Maghreb Arabe Presse in November 1999, then as Director-General of Home Affairs at the Ministry of the Interior.
Fadel Benyaich or Benaich is a senior member of the royal cabinet of King Mohammed VI, reportedly in charge of relations with Spain. He studied at the Collège Royal with Mohammed VI.
Karim Bouzida is a Moroccan PR agent. He is the communication strategy Chargé de mission at the royal court of Mohammed VI, reportedly in charge of promoting the image of the monarch. He is also the director-general of Mena Media Consulting, a PR and communications strategy agency owned by the monarch's friend and influential advisor Fouad Ali El Himma.
Mustapha Adib is an ex-captain in the Royal Moroccan Air Force. In late 1999, he was arbitrarily detained then imprisoned for 30 months after he denounced corruption in the military.
The General Directorate for Studies and Documentation is the foreign intelligence agency of Morocco, under authority of the Administration for National Defense. It is officially tasked with maintaining national security and the safety of national institutions.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Rabat, Morocco.
Nasser Bourita is a Moroccan diplomat serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates since 5 April 2017.
Mehdi Bennouna was a Moroccan nationalist, writer and journalist. He was the founder of the Maghreb Arab Press Agency in 1959 and the first Moroccan delegate at the United Nations.
Miriem Bensalah-Chaqroun is a Moroccan businesswoman. She is CEO and vice-chair of Oulmes Mineral Water of Groupe Holmarcom. She is the president of Confédération générale des entreprises du Maroc from 2012 to 2018. She received the Wissam Al-Moukafa Al-Watania in 2013, the Order of Civil Merit in 2017 and the Legion of Honour in 2020.
Relations between the Maghreb countries of Morocco and Tunisia were first established in 1956. Both states' territory historically formed a part of the Carthaginian and Roman empires, before becoming protectorates within the French colonial empire.
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