Morocco
Magazines brought to court for criticizing kingPosted Feb 25 2007
Two independent news magazines were brought to court and fined by the government last month for criticizing the king, Islam and Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara, according to The Guardian. Driss Ksikes, editor in chief of Nichane and Sanaa Al Aji, a journalist of the weekly magazine, were fined more than $9,300 each and sentenced to three years’ probation for printing an article called “Jokes: How Moroccans Make Fun of Religion, Sex and Politics.” The magazine itself was banned from publishing for two months, according to The New York Times. The article included jokes about God, the Prophet Muhammad and Mohammed VI. Nichane was shut down after religious conservatives started a campaign to punish the magazine. The journalists were brought to court for printing material “offensive to the Islamic religion.” Meanwhile, Aboubakr Jamai, editor of Le Journal Hebdomadaire, and Fahd Iraqi, a former journalist of the magazine, are facing $350,000 in damages in a government-supported libel suit, according to The Guardian. The magazine questioned the impartiality of a report written by Claude Moniquet, the director of the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center. The report was in favor the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara.
According to The New York Times, Nichane has announced that it will not appeal the case, and Le Journal Hebdomadaire’s editor has resigned from his post and will leave the country.
For more information see: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/03/opinion/03lalami.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6362899,00.html