Speaking at the opening session of the Arab Meeting on Media Sovereignty, Mr. Moujahid called for a collective mobilization of Arab journalists to defend truth, sovereignty, and the integrity of Arab causes. He recalled that the General Federation of Arab Journalists remains the common home of professionals in the Arab world and a shield against falsification and foreign interference.
“We are facing an unprecedented media war, where history, geography, and political reality are distorted to serve hostile agendas,” he emphasized, citing the campaign against Morocco regarding its Sahara as a textbook case.
Mr. Moujahid reminded that the Moroccan Sahara has never been a land without a ruler, but an integral part of the Kingdom for centuries, where Saharan tribes pledged allegiance to the Sharifian Sovereign. He mentioned the historical resistance led by Sheikh Maa El Aïnine and his sons against the Spanish occupation, as well as Morocco’s gradual recovery of its southern provinces — Tarfaya in 1958 and Sidi Ifni in 1969 — before the Green March of 1975, which definitively ended the Spanish colonial presence.
He also recalled that Morocco was the first country to appeal to the UN in 1961 to peacefully claim its Sahara, and that the International Court of Justice had recognized the existence of allegiance links between Saharan tribes and the Moroccan Throne.
Denouncing the media propaganda orchestrated by some Spanish, Western, and especially Algerian media, Mr. Moujahid clarified that the so-called “liberated zones” are merely a demilitarized buffer area, administered under an agreement with the United Nations. He also criticized the tragic situation in the Tindouf camps, which are militarized detention camps on Algerian soil, where serious human rights violations are documented, including the recruitment of child soldiers and the diversion of international humanitarian aid.
The President of the Committee finally warned against the geopolitical strategy aimed at weakening Morocco and obstructing the completion of its territorial integrity, recalling that similar campaigns have already contributed to the fragmentation of several Arab states.
In conclusion, Younes Moujahid called on Arab journalists to make the fight against disinformation an essential pillar of their mission.
“The defense of truth is a professional, national, and moral duty. Media sovereignty is the key to national sovereignty, and the right word remains our first weapon in the battle for consciousness,” he affirmed forcefully.
Translated from Abderrazzak Boussaid’s French article – le7tv