Michelle Betz's Dispatch from Morocco #2
Rabat, MoroccoJanuary 17, 2005
It's hard to believe that I've already been here just over two weeks. I feel like I'm settling in well -- so well, in fact, that I've got my first cold! I'm really enjoying my apartment in the Kasbah and will have a little housewarming gathering this weekend with some people from work.
The past week has kept me busy. I had my first workshop last week with a group that was composed of some 15 partisan newspaper journalists. Going into this, I knew it was going to be a challenge for a few reasons. First off, even though I have print experience, I hadn't done any print training in, well, forever! Secondly, I wasn't really sure how to deal with partisan journalists (just the term seems to be a contradiction) and how to present them with the ideas of objectivity, balance, fairness, etc.
Finally, my own insecurity had to do with conducting my first workshop in Morocco in French. I was nervous, but at the end of the day I somehow made it work. I had a translator with me, since there was some fear that some of the journalists might not feel comfortable working in French and would prefer Arabic. This turned out to be the case, and it was explained to me that there is a certain kind of class system when it comes to languages (as there seems to be in many parts of the world). Being fluent in French in this country isn't always the case, but rather suggests that you're educated, so, oftentimes, journalists who work for Arabic-language news outlets and who aren't fluent in French may be ashamed or afraid to say so. In any case, it was good that I had a translator. Many of the journalists simply didn't feel comfortable in French (and I suspect that may be the case in other workshops I carry out).
There were some great debates during the workshop, however. One was about opinion. As we began talking about objectivity, several of the journalists were quite adamant when they said that opinion was an important part of journalism and that it is our role as journalists to make our opinions known in our stories. That was like a dagger going through my heart... and I think it showed! I made it clear in no uncertain terms that there is ONE place for a journalist's opinion and that's in the op-ed pages, NOT in any story that's meant to be passed off as objective journalism. I think I got through, though I'm still not convinced that they all bought it. Oh well, all you can do is try.
There was also some good discussion about freebies and that we, as journalists, should not accept anything for free if only because of how something like this might be perceived. Again, several of them looked at me as if I had just escaped from the loony bin. All I could do was to repeat my message, knowing full well that one of the government's goals is to kill corruption (which for years has run rampant in Morocco).
But there was also agreement on some things. We actually began the workshop with a discussion what partisan press is versus independent press. At the end of the discussion we came to the realization that there isn't perhaps as much difference as we all had thought.
The workshop ended with a discussion of the challenges of doing journalism in Morocco; many of these exist in North American journalism as well.
While I'm on the subject of the media, there was a fascinating journalism-related story last week, one that has become a huge controversy here. The headline read (and this is translated from the Arabic): "Sexual tourism and tsunami: a preventive alarm to Morocco before it's too late".
The story, written by the Editor-in-Chief of the Islamist newspaper, Attajdid, basically said, "the tides that swept several southeastern Asian countries are God's punishment and a dangerous alarm for Morocco, which has become a favorite destination for sexual tourism". He went on to call on the kingdom to take appropriate measures against the phenomenon (of sexual tourism) before "divine wrath and collective punishment."
Yikes! I had heard about this from some of the journalists at the workshop and couldn't believe it... but it's true. Thank god most journalists (and political parties, etc.) here are completely outraged. But the party in question is still making waves. They have said that a TV broadcast regarding Moroccan journalists' rejection of the article was part of a campaign against the party and an attempt to tarnish its image, etc. Interesting.
What else can I tell you? Life here, as I've said before, has a definite Middle-Eastern feel to it, and sometimes I can't help think about how different my experience here is compared to what I experienced in Rwanda, even just in terms of day-to-day life . I can go to a supermarket here and find pretty much everything I could ever want, where in Rwanda I was lucky if I could find bread! I can get a phone put into my house; complete with ADSL...I could almost be at home!
