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Marrakech – The recent AFCON 2025 was a deliberate stress test for Morocco. Rather than a mere football tournament, the continental event functioned as a rehearsal for the 2030 World Cup. And as such, it revealed not only logistical and security lessons, but the centrality of narrative control. The tournament exposed how, in the absence of a robust media and communication ecosystem, organizational excellence alone can be diluted, distorted, or erased altogether.
Observers note, painfully, that Morocco lost twice. On the pitch, it missed a second continental title long-awaited since 1976. Off the pitch, it lost control of the narrative. The result was the symbolic equivalent of “the fqih whose blessing we awaited enter[ing] the mosque with his shoes on,” as the Moroccan adage would appropriately have it. In other words, it was a moment of deep disappointment. In English, this echoes the idea that great expectations can collapse at first sight, forcing us to ask: Is this really the media performance we expected?
Or, to put it in a much broader and more prestigious context of the World Cup, which is only a few years away, here is the central question confronting Morocco: Can the country translate global attention into lasting economic advancement? The challenge is not visibility, but narration. Without a media model capable of projecting Morocco coherently onto the world stage, even unprecedented exposure risks passing without strategic gain.
International media organizations often rely on what is known as an ombudsman – an independent internal watchdog whose role is to question coverage, challenge bias, correct errors, and represent the public interest inside the newsroom. The ombudsman exists to hold the media accountable to its own standards. In Morocco’s case, we do not even have this concept institutionalized. There is no real culture of media self-accountability or narrative review. So I will assume that role myself.
Morocco is a mute continental power
Morocco’s growing stature as a continental leader demands a media strategy that matches its diplomatic ambitions. For too long, the kingdom has relied on outdated, state-centric models of communication that no longer serve its interests. As Morocco deepens its footprint across Africa, it is in dire need of a powerful, pan-African media conglomerate.
Morocco has distinguished itself in many arenas – from impressive economic projects to internationally lauded intelligence capabilities – yet it continues to stumble in one crucial domain: the realm of media soft power. In an age when narratives are as influential as armies, this gap is glaring.
The paradox is striking. How can a nation that excels in hard power and diplomacy remain so muted in telling its own story to the world? Despite Morocco’s strengths, its voice on the global media stage is faint, even as rivals and great powers boom their messages across continents. This isn’t merely a matter of national pride; it’s about influence, security, and the ability to shape events rather than be shaped by them.
In modern geopolitics, the media is not just about entertainment or local news – it is a strategic instrument of soft power. The concept of soft power, introduced by political scientist Joseph Nye, refers to a country’s ability to influence others through attraction and persuasion rather than coercion.
Few tools project such influence as effectively as media and communications. Radio, television, and digital platforms can cross borders more swiftly than any diplomat, carrying a nation’s perspectives, culture, and arguments directly into foreign living rooms.
Stories, whether in the form of news broadcasts or cultural programming, win hearts and shape perceptions. Morocco, however, has yet to fully harness this power. Its international broadcasting is minimal, and its existing outlets lack the reach and punch to sway audiences abroad. In the battle of narratives, Morocco too often finds itself on the defensive or altogether absent.
Take a hard look at Moroccan media today. The country’s domestic TV and radio channels largely live in a parochial bubble, focused on local programming and often failing to engage even the Moroccan public, let alone regional or global audiences.
There is a discouraging lack of robust information and investigative vigor in these outlets. More crucially, they show little shrewdness or aggressiveness in countering the streams of misinformation and hostile propaganda coming from abroad – especially from certain neighboring countries with adversarial agendas.
A boundless reservoir of narrative talents held back by sluggish institutions
A case in point is the relentless media campaign waged by Algeria (often dubbed by frustrated Moroccans as “the hostile neighbor”) which spares no effort to vilify Morocco’s policies and undermine its territorial integrity.
Algerian state media and allied outlets churn out their narrative on regional disputes and North African affairs, seeking to sway international opinion. By contrast, Moroccan official media responds weakly, if at all. The result is a lopsided narrative playing out on the international airwaves: Morocco’s voice is subdued while its detractors often speak loud and unchallenged.
Until 2006, the situation was strikingly poor: Morocco had only two radio stations and two television channels serving a population of nearly 30 million people. At the very moment when satellite television was exploding, Moroccan audiences were suddenly exposed to hundreds of foreign channels – Arab, European, and international – while having almost nothing competitive at home.
Morocco’s audiovisual regulator, the High Authority of Audiovisual Communication (HACA), is tasked with granting broadcast licenses and ensuring compliance with media law, including pluralism and diversity in broadcasting. Despite this framework, Morocco today counts roughly eight to ten national television channels, most of them public and grouped under the Société Nationale de Radiodiffusion et de Télévision (SNRT).
Of the main TV outlets regulated under HACA, the sector includes pre-existing public channels like Al Aoula and major broadcasters like 2M and Medi 1 TV, but the entry of new independent players has been sparse. The actual TV landscape remains very limited compared with neighbouring countries such as Algeria or Egypt, where hundreds of channels operate. In Morocco, the number of licensed national television channels is small and mostly tied to public broadcasting entities. Morocco needs both quantity and quality – more media platforms, and better ones.
Medi 1 TV, which was once one of the few examples of a Moroccan news channel with wider ambitions, is being consolidated under the public broadcaster SNRT, as part of a broader takeover of national media assets, including 2M and Medi1 Radio.
In practice, HACA has not approved a large number of truly independent channels with broad, nationwide reach, and many license applications for new broadcasters have been blocked or remain unrealised. This forces some media organizations to operate from abroad – most notably Télé Maroc, which transmits from Madrid, indicating the structural constraints imposed on domestic media plurality.
This weakness isn’t due to a lack of talent or linguistic ability among Moroccans themselves. In fact, Moroccans are renowned for their linguistic versatility. Thanks to historical influences and a globally dispersed diaspora, Moroccans speak Arabic and Tamazight as official languages, often French, English, and Spanish as well, and many also command other dialects and tongues. Walk through any Moroccan tourist hub or university and you will find people who can switch effortlessly between languages to communicate with foreigners.
In theory, this polyglot population is a sleeping giant of soft power: a reservoir of potential journalists, presenters, content creators, and social media voices who could broadcast Morocco’s message in countless languages. However, this potential remains largely untapped at the institutional level. Morocco has not systematically leveraged its human capital to create media content in foreign languages for foreign audiences.
Morocco needs a megaphone for its worldview and strategic ambitions
One notable gap – which strategic planners in Rabat should urgently address – is the near absence of Moroccan media targeting Africa in African languages. Morocco has been steadily investing in Africa, rekindling old alliances and forging new partnerships across the continent. From West African economic ventures to religious and cultural diplomacy in Sub-Saharan countries, Morocco’s footprint in Africa is growing.
Yet, where are the Moroccan-produced programs in Swahili, Hausa, Amharic, or even English and French (beyond a limited francophone reach) to accompany and support this engagement? If Morocco seeks a leadership role in Africa, it must speak to Africans not only through treaties and trade deals but through radio waves, TV screens, and smartphone feeds – in languages people understand and with content that respects their intelligence and addresses their interests.
This would also break the lingering monopoly of postcolonial platforms like Jeune Afrique which still view Africa through a filtered, tainted lens of post-imperial France. Morocco’s real power lies in the continent it’s helping shape. It’s time the media reflected that. One voice from within is worth more than ten from the outside – and Morocco is the most credible candidate to carry that voice forward.
Consider the scale of Morocco’s future projects – for instance, the ambitious Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline which aims to connect West African energy to Europe via Moroccan transit, or Morocco’s bid to be a hub of African trade and banking, or its efforts in climate diplomacy and renewable energy that it proudly showcased to the world. These endeavors carry enormous economic promise, but they also hinge on public perception and international narrative.
A massive pipeline crossing a dozen countries isn’t just an engineering feat; it’s a story that could be told as a win-win South-South collaboration – or, if hostile media get their say unopposed, twisted into a neo-colonial scheme.
The latter framing spreads quickly in Europe, especially through parts of the French media ecosystem, where Rabat’s growing influence in what was once Paris’s traditional sphere unsettles old reflexes. This narrative is often amplified by segments of the liberal-radical left who still write through obsolete post-colonial frames, unable to process African agency or Morocco acting as a regional power in its own right.
The difference lies, after all, in who tells the story first and most convincingly. Likewise, as Morocco rejoined the African Union and positions itself as a bridge between Africa and Europe, it faces both warm receptions and skeptical scrutiny. African public opinion can be swayed by old stereotypes or misinformation (often spread by competitors who depict Moroccan policies in a negative light).
Only proactive, quality communication can dispel these clouds. Morocco needs a megaphone for its viewpoint – not to propagandize crudely, but to explain its policies, highlight its positive contributions, and engage in the battle of ideas on the continent.
This is the first chapter of a three-part op-ed series on Moroccan media. To read Chapter II, click here; to explore Chapter III, click here.
