Rabat- Minister of Communication Mustafa El Khalfi said on Friday that the draft Code of Press and Publications has abandoned imprisonment penalties and replaced them with fines.
Unlike the current Code of Press and Publication that includes imprisonment penalties in 21 articles, ‘’under the new draft code, proposed by the Ministry of Communication, journalists will no longer go to jail,’’ said Minister of Communication Mustafa El Khalfi, on Friday during the International Conference on Evaluation of Media Freedom.
‘’The imprisonment penalties have been replaced by fines,’’ he explained.
Mustafa El Khalfi goes on to add that the draft code is based on international norms in libel cases. ‘’The new code gives the journalist guarantees rather than forcing him to prove the validity of his information in a limited time.’’
El Khalfi said that the new code acknowledges electronic media, and guarantees its right of the free practice of journalism, and allows news websites to obtain shooting authorizations.