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Rabat – The National Association of Media and Publishers (ANME) held its first constituent assembly on Wednesday, June 24, in Casablanca.
The association aims to represent organizations in the sectors of print and digital press, as well as audiovisual media.
During the assembly, ANME members unanimously elected Abdelmounaim Dilami, the co-founder and CEO of Moroccan media company Eco-Medias, at the head of the new organization.
Dilami will set up a directing board and a 5-member committee that will draft the statutes and the internal laws of ANME.
The association’s chairman will also have to establish contact with the authorities in charge of the sector to find practical and concrete solutions to the “suffocating” crisis that threatens the media sector in Morocco, a press release said.
In a statement to the press, Dilami explained that the “main problem in Morocco is the economic model of media.”
“We are, admittedly, a sector of economic activity, but we are also operators in an area considered a public service,” he added.
The journalist cited two main challenges that face Moroccan media companies. The first constraint is the selling price of newspapers, “which cannot be increased for social reasons.”
Meanwhile, the second obstacle is the decrease in advertising revenue due to competition from “GAFA” (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon).
“We ask policymakers to discuss the various problems [media companies face] in order to achieve a balanced economic model, since our activity is essential for society,” Dilami said.
Talking about the struggle of print newspapers amid the COVID-19 crisis, Dilami recalled how “we continued to exercise our profession in very difficult circumstances where there were no revenues,” referring to the ban on print newspaper sales to curb the spread of the pandemic.
“Now, we need help to find a suitable business model,” he continued, “we no longer want to think in terms of subsidies. The important thing is to rebalance the model. We want to come up with solutions to these problems.”
ANME is expected to defend the interests of media professionals and serve as a link between them and official authorities.
