Alert

Authorities refuse to allow editor Ali Lmrabet to apply for publishing licence; CPJ protests newspapers' suspension

Incident details

Ali Lmrabet

newspaper(s)

suspended

(CPJ/IFEX) - In a 27 January 2005 letter to Justice Minister Mohamed Bouzoubaa, CPJ said it is deeply disturbed that the Ministry of Justice suspended two Arabic-language weeklies. According to press reports and local journalists, intelligence agents notified the editors of the Oujda-based weeklies "Al-Sharq" and "Al-Hayat al-Maghribiya" on 18 January that they were to cease publication of their weeklies immediately for three months on order of the ministry.

The order stemmed from an August 2003 court ruling suspending both papers for three months after "Al-Hayat al-Maghribiya" published an article in its 5 May - 20 May issue that discussed the history of the Islamist movement in Morocco and its alleged relationship with the country's intelligence services. "Al-Sharq" reprinted the article in its 5 June edition.

In addition, the court convicted editors Mohammed al-Herd and Abdel Majid Ben Taher, of "Al-Sharq", and Mustapha Qashnini, of "Al-Hayat al-Maghribiya", of "extolling the actions that comprise terrorism". Al-Herd was sentenced to three years in prison, and Ben Taher and Qashnini were sentenced to one year each.

In January 2004, King Mohammed VI pardoned all three journalists, along with editor Ali Lmrabet, of the satirical weeklies "Demain" and "Douman". Lmrabet's publications were banned and he was imprisoned in May 2003 for "insulting the king" and "challenging the territorial integrity of the state". After the pardon, Lmrabet left Morocco and his two weeklies never resumed publication.

According to local sources, the 18 January 2005 suspension of "Al-Hayat al-Maghribiya" was prompted when Lmrabet, who recently returned to Morocco, attempted to apply for a new license to publish again. Lmrabet told CPJ that authorities have refused to let him apply for a license.

On 26 January, Agence France-Presse reported that state prosecutors claimed that the king's pardon did not cover all four newspapers' suspensions. As a result, officials not only denied Lmrabet his license but revived the suspension order against "Al-Hayat al-Maghribiya" and "Al-Sharq". The revival of the suspensions of "Al-Sharq" and "Al-Hayat al-Maghribiya" more than a year after the king issued pardons is a troubling step backward for press freedom in Morocco, said CPJ in its letter.