Morocco Law Enacted 2016-07-26

Press and Publications Code (Law 88.13)

مدونة الصحافة والنشر (القانون رقم 88.13)

Summary

Morocco's first press code with no prison terms for peaceful speech offences, adopted 26 July 2016 by parliament under the PJD-led Benkirane government as part of a three-law package (the press code, a journalists' statute, and a law creating a National Press Council). The package had been submitted in October 2014 and was adopted before the legislature rose on 3 August 2016 ahead of the October 2016 election.

Impact

Conduct on the press-freedom axis that cuts both ways: the PJD government removed imprisonment as a penalty for press offences, but in tandem added penal-code provisions criminalizing "causing harm" to Islam and the monarchy, offending the king or royal family, and inciting against territorial integrity — all still punishable by prison. HRW concluded the "red lines stay red": journalists could still be jailed under the penal code for critical speech.

Parties involved

Justice and Development Party

Sources

Permalink https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/bills/2a95e66c-b28d-4fda-9027-3ea664869187

How to cite

This is a citation for the legislation itself — credited to Parliament of Morocco and dated to its 2016 introduction. Tayyar is the retrieval surface, not the author. A separate "Retrieved via" line records that you accessed it through this dataset.

In-text: (Parliament of Morocco, 2016)

APA 7Institutional author

Parliament of Morocco. (2016). Press and Publications Code (Law 88.13) [Legislation]. https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/05/05/red-lines-stay-red/moroccos-reforms-its-speech-laws. Retrieved via Tayyar (https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/bills/2a95e66c-b28d-4fda-9027-3ea664869187) on July 27, 2026.

Chicago author-dateCommon in political-science journals

Parliament of Morocco. 2016. “Press and Publications Code (Law 88.13).” Legislation. https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/05/05/red-lines-stay-red/moroccos-reforms-its-speech-laws. Retrieved via Tayyar, July 27, 2026.

BibTeXLaTeX / Zotero / reference managers

@misc{tayyar-bill-2a95e66c-b28d-4fda-9027-3ea664869187,
  title     = {{Press and Publications Code (Law 88.13)}},
  author    = {{Parliament of Morocco}},
  year      = {2016},
  date      = {2016-07-26},
  type      = {Legislation},
  url       = {https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/05/05/red-lines-stay-red/moroccos-reforms-its-speech-laws},
  urldate   = {2026-07-27},
  note      = {Retrieved via Tayyar (https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/bills/2a95e66c-b28d-4fda-9027-3ea664869187) on July 27, 2026}
}