US financed Radio Sawa asked the High Authority of Audiovisual Communication (HACA) to postpone the deadline of its terms and conditions contract, reported the French language daily l'Economiste in its Monday issue.
In a letter to the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, sent through the US embassy in Rabat, the Broadcasting Board of Directors (BBD) asked the Moroccan government to inform the HACA that Radio Sawa has the status of a governmental agency.
The BBD, which also manages the radio service Voice of America and the Arabic language channel Al-Hurra, asked for the necessary radio-diffusion licenses to be delivered to present BBD programmes in Morocco, in accordance with an agreement signed by Morocco and the United States in 1984, and a broadcasting authorization, dating back to 2003.
This letter was sent on Aug. 1, only one day before the expiry of the time allotted to the radio to present its contract terms and conditions, reported the newspaper.
This action is all the more surprising, according to L'Economiste, since the BBD chose to contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs a long time after the HACA became responsible for the management of Morocco's broadcasting scene.
According to L'Economiste, Radio Sawa could be seeking to use its governmental agency status to be treated differently from other Moroccan radio stations.
This announcement came a short time after Morocco's other main foreign radio channel, Mdi 1 signed its new contract terms and conditions on Aug. 2, in agreement with law 77.03, relating to audiovisual communication.
© Morocco Times 2005
