About IFEX:

News by region:

IFEX Campaigns and Advocacy:

IFEX Email Products:

Opportunities and assistance:

Alert

Weekly ordered to pay heavy damages in continuing court harassment

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders condemned the continuing judicial harassment of the Moroccan weekly "TelQuel" after a Casablanca court ruled on appeal on 7 February 2006 that it must pay 500,000 dirhams (50,000 euros) in damages in a libel suit brought by the director of a children's aid association, Touria Bouabid.

"It is now clear that the Moroccan courts want to strangle 'TelQuel' financially, as it was already ordered to pay an equally disproportionate fine a little more than a month ago," the press freedom organisation said.

"The appeal court did, it is true, reduce the amount of damages awarded by the lower court but it is still exorbitant and more than five times the maximum damages mentioned in the press code for defamation cases," Reporters Without Borders added.

"TelQuel"'s lawyer said the newspaper would appeal to a yet higher court.

A lower court in Casablanca ruled on 25 October 2005 that "TelQuel" should pay a fine of 10,000 dirhams (915 euros) and damages of 900,000 dirhams (82,300 euros) for a report in May that Bouabid had been summoned by the police for questioning about embezzlement within her NGO. The information came from police sources and was reported in three other newspapers as well as "TelQuel" - "Al Ahdath Al Maghribiya", "Al Ayam" and "Al Ousbouîya Al Jadida".

All four newspapers published retractions after the information turned out to be false, and the other three got off with minor fines.

On 29 December, the Casablanca appeal court ordered "TelQuel" to pay 800,000 dirhams (72,000 euros) in a separate libel case. So the total sum the weekly is now supposed to pay is 1.3 million dirhams (130,000 euros).