Mohamed Mehdi Bennani, the Minister of Youth, Culture, and Communication, stated during a parliamentary session on Tuesday, July 22, 2025, that state support for the press is a widely recognized practice internationally. He emphasized that the current criteria for distributing support, primarily focusing on revenue, represent a necessary measure in the absence of precise mechanisms to gauge the readership and impact of media outlets.
The minister clarified that the government relies on revenue figures and the number of employees in media companies as a basis for distributing support, due to the lack of an official institution functioning as a “barometer” for newspaper and website readership. He added that this approach aims to link support to the effectiveness of a business and its ability to grow, asserting that companies which achieve significant revenue and employ more journalists and technicians deserve the support.
Bennani stressed the importance of subjecting support funds, as public money, to rigorous accounting to ensure they are spent on their designated purposes and contribute effectively to the sector’s development. He revealed that support allocated to media companies has not been disbursed since 2020, and that the funds stipulated in the new law will not be available before 2026, meaning this support is currently not included in company revenue figures.
He further noted that the philosophy behind the new support system is designed to encourage small media companies, where support can reach up to 50% of their revenue, compared to a maximum of 30% for larger companies, with the aim of enhancing plurality and supporting smaller outlets. Additionally, he distinguished between this structural support aimed at businesses and the exceptional support provided by the previous government directly to journalists to address specific challenges.
