Casablanca- The Casablanca-based Ecole Superieure de Journalisme et de Communication (School of Journalism and Communication) on Wednesday invited Dr. Samir Bennis, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Morocco World News to share its experience with the young students of the school.
Samir Bennis shared with the audience the story behind the creation of Morocco World News. Being a strong advocate of Morocco’s territorial integrity, especially regarding the Sahara region, Dr. Bennis decided along with his brother, Mr. Adnane Bennis, to set up a new platform that would provide international public opinion with a more balanced and nuanced vision on the Sahara issue. He highlighted that there is lack of awareness among the Moroccan public opinion and media professionals about the need to reach out to the international public opinion in order to provide it with a more nuanced and balanced vision about Morocco.
He added that MWN intends to be Morocco’s window to the world, thus providing any person eager to learn about the country to have access to information covering every aspects of its culture, history, economic and political life.
He went on to stress the pivotal role played by MWN in the media landscape both at the domestic and the international levels, especially in the United States. It has indeed lifted the veil of silence over deficiencies in defending Moroccan interests before the international community.
He also highlighted that MWN is the only Moroccan news outlet that provides news and analyses about Morocco and the rest of the world around the clock, while commending the other members of the team located in Morocco, who play an important role in providing the readers with the latest news about the events taking place in the MENA region.
Mr. Bennis listed a number of crucial events that have traits with Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara region exclusively covered by the MWN team. He referred to the omission of the Sahara region from the documents submitted by the Morocco Mall architecture company. In addition, MWN was the first news outlet to address the lack of coverage by Moroccan media of the Security Council sessions in New York where the Sahara conflict is debated.
In this regard, Mr. Bennis had sent an open letter to the minister of communication Mr. Khalfi. He seized the opportunity to call for reform of the media sector in regard to national interests. The same issue was raised during an MWN interview with Mr. Choubani, minister in charge of relations with parliament and civil society.
Mr. Bennis shared with the audience the long term goals of MWN. Indeed, MWN founders envision building an influential news outlet that will rival with major international news outlets.
He highlighted that MWN emerged as a groundbreaking English speaking news outlet that provides insight to both local and international news in total alignment with Moroccan identity and supreme national interests. He added that the appeal of MWN is going crescendo, pointing out that readers from an average of 90 countries visit the website every day.
He also highlighted that, unlike other news outlets in Arabic or French whose reach is limited, MWN has further reach commensurate to the global reach of the English language.
Dr. Samir Bennis will also be a guest speaker at the University Hassan II of Casablanca on Friday 28 December where he will enlighten the audience of the university about the Spanish colonial legacy and the representation of Moroccans, as well as in Meknes’ Moulay Ismail University on Friday 4 January where he will share his experience in launching MWN.
Online journalism is still at the embryonic stage. Yet, this new trend seems to be a bottomless reservoir of unexplored possibilities. MWN ambitious team is resolute to expand its outreach among Moroccan and international readership by maintaining high standards and, most importantly, by being faithful to the national identity.
