Al Massae

In 2016, Al Massae was the second most widely distributed Arabic-speaking, general information Moroccan daily newspaper in the kingdom, with a daily average of 33 262 copies sold.

Edited by the group ‘Massae Media’ since September 2006, it was launched under the initiative of two widely read Arabic-language journalists Taoufik Bouachrine and Rachid Niny  – who later created Al Akhbar -, joined by former banker converted to journalism and his distribution company Al Wassit, Samir Chaouki* hyperlink and Mohamed Asli, a director/producer who helped finance the venture.  The newspaper often had controversial stances and has been the subject of several court cases. The team of founders has parted ways since then and either launched new outlets or joined existing ones.

Niny remained its director of publication and the director of the mother company from 2006 to 2011. Asli took the direction of the newspapers in 2011, after Niny was incarcerated and fined for having been indicted with misinformation and defamation under the penal code. Journalist Abdellah Damoune has been the editor-in-chief of the newspaper since 2011.

Its director of publication, and at the time also director of the mother company Al Massae, Mr. Rachid Niny, was in 2011 As it now becomes a recurring strategy on the part of the court system, Niny was charged and judged under the penal code rather than the Press code. Masae media’s leadership was thus entrusted to one of the founders, Mr. Asli, and Mr. Damoune, has since 2011 retained the position of editor-in-chief of the paper. 

It should be noted that when the MoM team started working on this project in August 20, the OJD had not yet published Al Massae's 2016 numbers. For unknown reasons, these were published in mid-October.