MOM Team
Ali Amar is a journalist, the co-founder and the director of the publication for Le Desk. After a short professional experience in the banking sector, Amar started his career in journalism in the mid-1990’s at La Vie Eco. In 1997, he co-founded the weekly newspaper Le Journal and directed its newsroom for 11 years. With a degree in Journalism of the London City University, Amar published several essays. Among them, the best-selling « Mohammed VI, the great misunderstanding » (Calmann-Lévy, 2009). Amar regularly publishes articles for international outlets, such as the French investigation online platform Mediapart. He also covered the Arab Spring in Morocco for The New York Times.
Mohamed Drissi Kamili is an art director and photo-journalist. He has been working as Le Desk creative director since 2015 after being the regional art director for Karoui & Karoui World (formerly Saatchi & Saatchi). He started his careet in 2001 in different communications agencies before taking an active part in the creation of the Nessma TV channel in Tunisia. He then became in charge of the new brand identity of the weekly TelQuel. Drissi has also published photo-essays and portraits for the French monthly Jeune Afrique.
Clothilde Le Coz is a journalist and an international technical expert in media development. She worked as the MOM project manager in 2017 and was the MOM lead researcher in Cambodia in 2015. A former director for RSF Washington DC office, she started to work in 2007 as a journalist, specialising in online freedom issues for RSF. She lived 6 years between Cambodia and Myanmar, where she reported about political and social issues for international media outlets. In 2016, she was in charge of coordinating and supporting the development of the first private Myanmar journalism school. She focuses on media independence and the role of civil society in countries in democratic transition.
Fatima Zahra Lqadiri is Pulse Média's Executive Director and co-founder of Le Desk. She holds a degree in business administration and finance from HEM and a Master's Degree in Marketing and Communications from the Sorbonne University in Paris. Lqadiri started her journalism career with Success Publications before joining the Shem's agency in 2011. She then contributed to the pure player Lakome.
Salma Refass is the lead researcher on the MoM Morocco project. Specialised in political economy and public policy with a focus on the MENA region, she has gained interdisciplinary experience working in both academia and the not-for-profit sectors. Economist by training, she successively held positions of analyst for specific development-related programs implemented around the globe (South Africa, Kenya, Pakistan…) as well as researcher on academic projects in the realm of political economy and international affairs, based at the University of Sydney. She is currently working towards her PhD in Comparative Public Policy and Governance.
Soufiane Sbiti is the assistant researcher on the MoM Morocco project. He is a Moroccan journalist who has collaborated with a number of Moroccan news outlets, amongst them LeDesk.ma and TelQuel Media. He holds a bachelor's degree with double major in Law and Islamic Studies and is currently working as a researcher at the University of Strasbourg.
Le Desk
Le Desk was launched in 2015. An online news and investigations platform, it is the brainchild of three journalists and two founding partners, believing that Morocco’s media scene needed a new, professionnal, credible and innovative pure player. With the idea that the press has a crucial role to play in the society – by informing independently on topcis of direct concern – Le Desk opted to give back to its readers the capacity to engage in the social debate. The readers are the only ones able to ensure its editorial independence and its sustainability.
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders (Reporter Sans Frontières, RSF) was founded in Montpellier (France) in 1985 by four journalists. It is is registered in France as a non-profit organization and has consultant status at the United Nations and UNESCO. RSF advocates for media freedom, supports independent media and protects endangered journalists worldwide. Its missions are
- To continuously monitor attacks on freedom of information worldwide;
- To denounce any such attacks in the media;
- To act in cooperation with governments to fight censorship and laws aimed at restricting freedom of information;
- To morally and financially assist persecuted journalists, as well as their families.
- To offer material assistance to war correspondents in order to enhance their safety.
Since 1994, the German section is active in Berlin. Although the German section works closely with the International Secretariat in Paris to research and evaluate media freedom worldwide, it is organizationally and financially independent. In that role, it has applied for a grant at the federal German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development – in order to finance the Media Ownership Monitor project.
Global Media Registry
The Global Media Registry (GMR) collects, compiles and provides – either publicly available or self-reported – datasets and contextual information on media outlets around the world.
In doing so, the objective is to enhance transparency, accountability and responsibility in the information space. Thus, the GMR facilitates better choices and decision making, both algorithmic and human, of all stakeholders. These may include every citizen and consumer, regulators and donors, as well as the private sector – for example advertisers and intermediaries (a. k. a. platforms and distributors).
By providing this public service as a social enterprise, the Global Media Registry contributes to the advancement of the freedoms of information and expression at large.
It was founded as a spin-off from the Media Ownership Monitor project, which it now operates as a non-for-profit LLC registered under German law.