Mamfakinch

Mamfakinch, which means "no concession" or "not giving in",[1] is a Moroccan citizen media website co-founded by Hisham Almiraat and Elmahdi El Mhamdi, among others.[2][3] Mamfakinch known members include journalists Omar Radi and Nizar Bennamate[4] as well as activists Zineb Belmkaddem[4] and Soumia El Marbouh[5] and several other anonymous members.[6]

Mamfakinch
Type of site
Citizen Media, News
Available inEnglish, Arabic
FoundedFebruary 2011
Headquarters
Morocco
Founder(s)Hisham Almiraat, Elmahdi El Mhamdi (co-founders)
others unknown
Key peopleOmar Radi, Soumia El Marbouh, Zineb Belmkaddem, Nizar Bennamate
URLmamfakinch.com
Current statusActive

Mamfakinch was founded during the Arab Spring movement in the Middle East in February 2011, shortly after the January 25th uprisings that ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. It launched shortly before the February 20th protests that took place in Morocco as a way to disseminate information about the protests,[7] to counter state-misinformation that started ahead of the events[8] and provide a platform for free expression to ideas that did not necessarily have access to mass media.[9] After that it became one of the major sources for citizens to gain awareness of topics not discussed in the state-run media.

History

The installation of Mamfakinch took place during the movement of February 20, 2011. The efforts for change were led by Moroccan youth with intentions to restructure the Makzhen ruling class under King Mohammed VI's leadership.[10] The original media from Mamfakinch was published in 2011.

Its main purpose is to provide additional or under reported news to Moroccan citizens with information not directly covered by newspapers or media outlets. The writers express concerns for freedom, human rights and democracy with the intention to provoke citizens to advocate for less censorship in the news broadcastings.

The contributions of the journalists have not been previously researched as to whether or not they have made a serious impact in the news media world.[6]

Front page screenshot of the website mamfakinch.com

Contributors

Mamfakinch operates through a social movement organization style as opposed to a journalism approach to writing and reporting information. The media portal does not hire professionally trained journalists, but instead claims that the writers view themselves as insiders of the latest news. The members of the organization follow an advocacy plan with the hopes of broadcasting news that is not recounted by larger news sources. The staff writes out of cause as opposed to adhering to the interests of society members.[11]

Political affiliation

Mamfakinch is not associated with any one political platform and their view on entitlement to human rights is not defined by the Moroccan culture.[12]

Interruption of activity

On February 18, 2014, the website stopped its activity. Mamfakinch released a statement explaining the reasons behind the interruption of activity and summarising their view of the 3 years experience of the website.[13]

Impact

Acting under the firm belief that democracy and freedom of expression cannot exist without each other, Mamfakinch do not seek to create good citizens as the state defines them but want to redefine citizenship and reshape he state through the establishment of democracy. To start this revolution, Mamfakinch attempts to provide the public with information that would otherwise be unavailable.[6]

Mamfakinch supports a number of domestic causes including reform, anticorruption, transparency, democratization, and the rights of women, as well as international causes like Palestinian statehood, while always keeping the organizations theme in the forefront- that all recent changes by the Moroccan government are nothing more than cosmetic.

While no empirical statements can be made about the true impact of Mamfakinch, many critics have argued that the website's novel approach to citizen journalism has created lasted change in four important ways. First, it has empowered its members and transformed them into engaged citizens though the process of learning to create and manage its significant volunteer network. Also, the website has shifted the narrative away from mainstream media, opening up new spaces for public discourse. In addition, the website is believed to have influenced the Moroccan elite and public as well as impacted policy processes to bring about systematic change in the country.

Though critics question whether or not these impacts are truly significant in a country that has seen very little real change since the Arab Spring, there is widespread fear among government officials about the website's incredible exposure and the ability of new digital networking tools have to further social justice causes in oppressive regimes.[14]

Investigations

Among its notable investigations, Mamfakinch revealed the exact GPS position of the secret torture facility known as the Temara interrogation centre[15] which was later revealed by the U.S Senate report on CIA black sites to be used for torture,[16] as well as investigations on corruption practices by minister Moncef Belkhayat and his family member Mehdi Kettani,[17] managing director of the Moroccan branch of the French company Groupe Bull,[18][19][20][21][22] or by the Moroccan king's special secretary Mounir Majidi and other officials.[23] Mamfakinch also investigated the moroccan king's business involvement, revealing cases of massive pollution of the Moulouya river by the sugar producer Cosumar (controlled by King's holding SNI) and interviewing local climate and environmental activists such as Mohammed Benata, who were censored by local media when trying to reveal the ecological disaster of the Moulouya,[24][25] as well as malpractices by the mining company Managem in Imider in the Atlas Mountains, by investigating managem as well as sponsoring a documentary on managem's activity in Imider.[26][27]

After mamfakinch's revelation on the exact location of the torture facility known as the Temara interrogation center, the February 20th movement organized a protest on May 15, 2011, that marched to the facility and was bloodily repressed according to Amnesty International.[28] According to reports from Lakome, the torture facility, which is believed to have operated for a decade at least, was dismantled on April 27, 2011, before the beginning of the protests and immediately after the revelations made by mamfakinch and the February 20th movement intention to march towards it.[29]

Spyware attack

In July 2012, briefly after Mamfakinch won the Google breaking borders award, an anonymous source sent a document supposedly containing scandalous information about a Moroccan politician. The document instead tracked emails, Skype conversations, and documents downloaded to all the workers' computers. The attack led to a drop in employees from 35 to 5. Fear of further retaliation and compromise of safety caused a lack of sources for the group.[30] No group has taken responsibility for the hacking. The particular piece of malware used costs around half a million dollars and is used by governments in crime investigation. The malware was tracked to the country's capital city, Rabat.[31]

Awards
  • In 2011, Mamfakinch was nominated for the Bob Blog's award for Best Arabic Blog.[32]
  • In 2012, Mamfakinch won the joint Google and Global Voices Breaking Borders Award along with the website Atlatszo.hu.[33]

References
  1. "Mamfakinch". moroccansforchange.com. April 3, 2011. Archived from the original on April 15, 2015. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  2. "« Un moment inoubliable » : au Maroc, les militants s'interrogent sur les acquis du Mouvement du 20 février dix ans après". Middle East Eye édition française (in French). Retrieved February 25, 2021.
  3. "Hisham Almiraat". globalvoices.com. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  4. Iddins, Annemarie (September 13, 2018). "Mamfakinch: From Protest Slogan to Mediated Activism". International Journal of Communication. 12: 20. ISSN 1932-8036.
  5. "Comment le groupuscule de Mamfakinch et ses acolytes". Maroc Diplomatique (in French). June 1, 2021. Retrieved September 12, 2021.
  6. Harvey, Kerric (2014). "Mamfakinch". Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. pp. 787–9.
  7. "Mamfakinch". moroccansforchange.com. April 3, 2011. Archived from the original on April 15, 2015. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  8. "« Un moment inoubliable » : au Maroc, les militants s'interrogent sur les acquis du Mouvement du 20 février dix ans après". Middle East Eye édition française (in French). Retrieved February 25, 2021.
  9. "« Un moment inoubliable » : au Maroc, les militants s'interrogent sur les acquis du Mouvement du 20 février dix ans après". Middle East Eye édition française (in French). Retrieved February 25, 2021.
  10. "Morocco: Rise and Fall of Feb 20 Protests". wordpress.com. January 7, 2012. Archived from the original on April 15, 2015. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  11. Harvey, Kerric (2014). "Mamfakinch". Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. pp. 787–9.
  12. Harvey, Kerric (2014). "Mamfakinch". Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. pp. 787–9.
  13. "[arabic] Mamfakinch was an innovative idea in 2011, not anymore in 2014 and it should be renewed". mamfakinch.com. February 18, 2014. Archived from the original on April 23, 2016. Retrieved April 11, 2016.
  14. Harvey, Kerric (2014). "Mamfakinch". Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. pp. 787–9.
  15. "Mamfakinch révèle le lieu exact du centre de détention de Témara". April 25, 2011. Archived from the original on April 25, 2011. Retrieved September 12, 2021.
  16. Alami, Aida (January 17, 2015). "Morocco Crushed Dissent Using a U.S. Interrogation Site, Rights Advocates Say". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 12, 2021.
  17. "Affaire Southbridge : la preuve du rétropédalage de Lamia Boutaleb". Le Desk. Retrieved September 29, 2021.
  18. "Traqués sur Internet avec l'aide de la France". Le Desk. Retrieved September 29, 2021.
  19. "Ministre error 404". Maghress. Retrieved September 12, 2021.
  20. "Mamfakinch.com — Une vidéo et quelques questions complémentaires au ministre Moncef Belkhayat". May 29, 2011. Archived from the original on May 29, 2011. Retrieved September 12, 2021.
  21. "Mamfakinch.com — Réponse de Monsieur Belkhayat à la lettre ouverte de Mamfakinch". May 29, 2011. Archived from the original on May 29, 2011. Retrieved September 12, 2021.
  22. "Je m'appelle Moncef B , j'ai le verbe ordurier et la fonction de ministre - Choses vues, choses lues". September 30, 2015. Archived from the original on September 30, 2015. Retrieved September 12, 2021.
  23. "Maroc : une révolte sans crainte, sans trêve et sans leader – Jeune Afrique". JeuneAfrique.com (in French). June 20, 2011. Retrieved September 12, 2021.
  24. "Mamfakinch — Une filiale de la SNI responsable d'un drame écologique à la Moulouya?". June 12, 2018. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved September 29, 2021.
  25. "Mamfakinch.com — كارثة الملوية البئية : حديث مع السيد محمد بن عطا". May 6, 2012. Archived from the original on May 6, 2012. Retrieved September 29, 2021.
  26. Bahmad, Jamal (October 1, 2019). "Insurgent citizenship: Youth, political activism and citizen cinema in post-2011 Morocco". Journal of African Cinemas. 11 (2): 131–140. doi:10.1386/jac_00011_1. ISSN 1754-9221. S2CID 216573378.
  27. Beauchesne, Pierre-Luc (2019). "L'après-mobilisation : le Mouvement du 20 Février au Maroc, de la désillusion au redéploiement de l'engagement". Politique et Sociétés. 38 (3): 51–77. doi:10.7202/1064730ar. ISSN 1203-9438.
  28. "Les autorités marocaines critiquées pour leur répression des manifestations à Témara". Amnesty International Belgique (in French). Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  29. "Des camions quittent le centre de détention de Témara". June 8, 2011. Archived from the original on June 8, 2011. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  30. "When governments attack — online". BBC.com. April 15, 2014. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  31. Harvey, Kerric (2014). "Mamfakinch". Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. pp. 787–9.
  32. "Mamfakinch.com nominated for the BOB's Best Arabic Blog". tumblr.com. April 15, 2011. Archived from the original on April 4, 2015. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  33. Harvey, Kerric (2014). "Mamfakinch". Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. pp. 787–9.
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