Mohammed Slahemi Writes: Hamid Mahdaoui… The Fabricator of Information and an Adversary of Truth
This article reflects Mohammed Slahemi’s stance, Director of Maroc Hebdo, regarding the Hamid Mahdaoui case and the controversy surrounding the publication of images taken from an internal meeting of the National Press Council. Beyond the individual incident, the text reveals a troubling slip that raises questions about journalistic responsibility and the protection of professional institutions against attempts to manipulate public opinion. It poses a candid question: to what extent can freedom of expression extend without becoming a violation of ethics and the profession’s credibility?
Press freedom does not justify fabrication or distortion. However, Mahdaoui has turned it into a weapon against institutions, employing fabrication and slander as his preferred means to undermine credibility and erode trust.
We must call things by their names. Hamid Mahdaoui, in the context of the profession, is merely a YouTuber driven by blind zeal, seduced by the thrill of sensationalism, and fueled by a passion for artifice and exaggeration. The claim that he practices journalism is nothing more than a delusion, befitting someone who deliberately mixes the honor of news with the triviality of digital noise. This confusion not only threatens the profession but also endangers the integrity of Morocco’s public space as a whole.
Let this illusion fade. The man shows no respect for standards, nor for professional ethics, nor for the sanctity of the profession. He roams YouTube like a peddler in the marketplace, sowing anger, promoting scandal, cultivating suspicion, and feasting on the confusion between sound information and the abyss of voyeurism and profiteering.
Between crudeness and defamation, and between journalism and virtual trial, Mahdaoui engages in a daily craft of deception, holding a relentless workshop to express anger in the form of a theatrical spectacle intended to serve as a substitute for truth.
When he dared on Thursday, November 20, 2025, to illegally broadcast excerpts from a closed meeting of the Ethics Committee of the Temporary Press Affairs Commission, after distorting its content with directed editing, his intention was neither to enlighten public opinion nor to fulfill a professional duty. His aim was, with premeditated intent, to defame, sow doubt, create confusion, and undermine trust in regulatory institutions, especially the National Press Council. This is not a profession but a scheme of moral demolition whose episodes continue.
What’s worse is that this behavior is neither sudden nor strange. It extends a long trajectory of brazen misconduct. The man is currently being prosecuted for defamation and has received a sentence of a year and a half in prison along with a heavy fine, in addition to having a record of prior convictions. To recall, he was sentenced to three years of imprisonment for his involvement in the “Hirak Rif” movement. There is no hint of political persecution in these events; they summarize a troubled and persistent relationship with the law. What credibility can be afforded to the statements of a man with a criminal record? We are not facing a martyr of opinion or an elevated act; rather, we are confronted with a misdemeanor of common law, devoid of heroism or glory.
Nevertheless, Mahdaoui continues to cloak himself in a tattered mantle called “freedom of expression,” using it as a shield to justify insults, defamation, manipulation, and egregious offenses. Yet freedom does not mean chaos; it does not permit the distortion of facts, nor does it allow for misleading people or falsely accusing innocents for the sake of easy profit or fleeting attention. In the end, he collects his true wages from “YouTube,” his primary employer.
What is happening transcends Mahdaoui himself. It is a struggle between two visions of journalism: one rooted in responsibility, ethics, and respect for rules, and another that fuels digital chaos, where insult replaces news, and virality stands in for truth.
The temporary commission, by resorting to the judiciary, draws an essential red line. It reminds us that journalism is not a jungle, and a journalist’s card is not a license to break the rules, nor a badge to be abused by those who do not respect its conditions and are solely driven by ephemeral daily gains.
Morocco does not need purveyors of fake news or advocates of sensationalism; it needs responsible journalists who appreciate the weight of words, the sharpness of images, and the gravity of accusations. It requires mature journalism that sincerely and vigilantly accompanies its democratic journey. When slander and profiteering become the norm, democracy stumbles. When lying is tolerated, truth becomes the first victim.
In the face of this pitfall, I say to Hamid Mahdaoui: complete neutrality is an illusion, and silence is complicity. There is but one path: either defend the honor of journalism or allow its distorted image to spread and dominate.
