(From this edition forwards, the newspaper will be released daily) Al Maghrib, No 52, September 2, 1937.
The national press is still in its infancy. In this first stage of its course, it seeks to its (rightful) place in Moroccan society, and to not hide its ambition to become one of its most solid foundations and a platform on top of which those who favor reform can address the nation and guide it.
But while it is yet in its first faltering steps, we are optimistic about its future which can only be bright given the welcome it received by the nation and by the public's esteem for its efforts. Efforts that it never ceased to deploy such that now the Moroccan journalist has become the source for refuge for complaints and on whom all layers of society confide their views. Cities, towns as well as a number of areas in the remotest countryside submit to the editorial staffs of all Moroccan papers information in writing or drafts of articles to be written as is, something which has never happened before.
Hence the more a Moroccan journalist becomes optimistic with regards to his profession, the more he becomes aware of the seriousness of the responsibility that is incumbent on him. It is up to him to awaken the slumbering consciousness and it is in his paper's columns that the cultured fulfill their duty to unveil the ills that gnaw at the nation and to raise their voice such that the message is loud and clear.
The press does not have a mission to endlessly enumerate all the wrongs subjected to the people, no more so than for it to mirror all the calamities that befall them. Wrongs and calamities that according to some reflect the most salient occurrences in their lives. Some readers who write to the paper insist that the press write the totality of the information they provided in their mail.
However it is necessary to face the fact that the understanding of one wrong is insufficient to fix it. The essential mission of the press is to contribute to finding adequate reforms to eradicate these wrongs and annoyances and to explain to the popular masses the multiple paths and means to attain these reforms. This is the press's main objective and is required so Morocco can wake up from its lethargy.
The Moroccan press is faced with a vast field of studies and perspectives that call for reform. It has much to work to do to explain to the common person the practical means to address their needs. And in return it needs to explain the just and equitable methods that the government must respect if it wishes to pull away from the unhealthy mindset which reins over its administrative apparatus making it a site for chaos and nuisance when, instead, it should be an instrument of order and service to the public.
The mission of the press is of the utmost importance and it is up to the Moroccan journalist to persevere on his path while being open to the rapid development of his profession, mindful of the upheavals of our times. Only under this condition can he fulfill his journalistic mission in a manner that will satisfy his professional conscience and satisfy his reformist ideals on the one hand and the public's demands on the other.
And that is how the press will be regarded as worthy of the respect of ordinary Moroccan and how the public will learn that it plays a primordial role in their emancipation, delivering them from stagnation and the shackles of colonialism, and reinforcing its sympathies and its encouragements.
FIX ME: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX notre époque; et ce n'est qu'à cette condition qu'il remplira sa mission journalistique d'une manière qui puisse satisfaire sa conscience professionnelle et ses orientations réformistes d'une part et les exigences du public des intellectuels d'autre part.
