Two expert committees mandated by the Council of Europe (CE) to elaborate draft recommendations on media and internet for ministers of member states, and validate studies based on these recommendations, met from 27^th to 30^th March at the CE in Strasbourg. Morocco, as the non-European country besides Mexico to be invited to take part in both committees (each one counted more than thirty experts) has been represented by a delegation that included Mrs. Jamal Eddine Naji, Director-General of the High Authority for Audiovisual Communication, Mahdi Aroussi Idrissi, Legal Department Director at the HACA and Ms. Meriem Khatouri, Director of Media Studies and Development Department at the Ministry of Communication, and Ms. Chanaz El Akrichi, Division of Cooperation Manager at the same Ministry.

The first committee examined on the 27^th and 28^th March a recommendation on challenges and impacts of both practices of internet intermediaries and algorithms, in terms of freedom of expression, journalism, and veracity of the news, besides many principles and values promoted and guaranteed by Human Rights. This recommendation has been debated by experts clause by clause during the two-days meeting, in light of a study about “Human rights dimensions within the algorithms application” in European area and in the world. In addition to the Moroccan delegation, these discussions have been attended by delegations from United Kingdom, Austria, Norway, Germany, France, Slovenia, Russia, Leetonia, Latvia, Estonia, Azerbaijan, Italy, Poland, Spain, Turkey, Mexico, and representatives of UNESCO, European Audiovisual Observatory (EAO), European Broadcasting Union (EBU), Article 19, some European universities as well as representatives of Council of Europe and European Commission.

As for the second committee, of which also the Moroccan delegation took part on 29^th and 30^th March, it has been charged with the validation of a draft recommendation on both “pluralism of the media and their ownership and governance transparency”. These Debates particularly pointed out the leadership role of the public service, the regulation’s role and missions, the concentration phenomenon, the issue of financing and the economic model, the advent of convergence, as well as the community media and social networks sectors and their practices in the globalized media. The responsibility of this committee was also to examine “a feasibility study for a normative instrument enabling a greater acknowledgment of gender equality in media coverage of elections”. Besides many experts that already participated to the first committee, delegations from the Netherlands, Bosnia – Herzegovina, Georgia, Portugal, Spain, Serbia, and researchers coming particularly from English and Dutch universities took part in discussions of the second committee.