Young Moroccans trained in cyber activism

By Merieme Addou, AfricaNews reporter in Rabbat, Morocco

The 11th national campus for young activists has closed at the Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane. It was organized by the Moroccan section of Amnesty International.

About 40 young people between 18 and 22, from different parts of Morocco, took part in this training which aimed to immerse young Moroccans in human rights culture and revealed opportunities for cyber-activism.

The use of new information and communication technologies, especially the Internet systems increased in the last years.

The main focus of the workshop was to make the young people aware of the possibilities offered by technology, citizen journalism and social networks and give them better knowledge of its tools and dare to use them in order to increase their political and social participation drastically.

The North African country internet market grew from 168,000 internet subscribers in June 2005 to more than 840,000 currently, among them 8 million Web users and 127,000 members on social networking sites like Facebook's " Morocco " channel and the majority of them are young people.

The Moroccan government has started short-term priority plan of action to promote competition in the ICT field and supported the introduction of the young technology and proclaimed an "education decade", during which every school in the country would be connected to the internet.