The oldest media group in Morocco, Maroc Soir Group is a publishing company based in Casablanca. It was founded during the French protectorate as Mas Presse. In 1971, the company was expropriated and renamed Maroc Soir. It now publishes Le Matin, the group’s most popular daily, Assahra Al Maghribiya and Maroc Soir.
Media assets
Print: Le Matin, Assahra Al Maghribiya, Maroc Soir
State Media Matrix Typology: Captured Private Media (CaPr)
Ownership and governance
Maroc Soir was bought in 2001 by Othman Benjelloun, a Moroccan businessman, who sold it in 2004 to its current owner, Othman Al Omeir, a businessman from Saudi Arabia known to be close to the Saudi King Salman and King Mohammed VI of Morocco.
Source of funding and budget
Maroc Soir Group generates most of its funding from sales of ads and sales of newspaper copies, some 65% coming from ad sales and the rest from sale of copy, according to local experts and journalists. The company doesn’t publish financial reports.
Editorial independence
Le Matin, the flagship publication of the Maroc Soir Group, is described in independent analyses as a pro-government or royalist newspaper because of its editorial coverage that is openly promoting the activities of the Moroccan king. The newspaper has a special section fully devoted to the royal house.
No domestic statute and no independent oversight or assessment mechanism to validate the editorial independence of Maroc Soir Group’s publications have been identified.
August 2023