Report on Media in Morocco - Arab Center for the Rule of Law and ...

official choices and the influence of other political parties. Actually, they are usually
in contradiction with such choices and provoke such parties.
Inside the independent press, there are exceptions whereby a journalist's personal
independence is relatively chained. In some of these newspapers, the remnants of the
resistance press still exist, either due to former or current belonging of some of its
supervisors or founders to political parties and their previous work in the media
institutions thereof. In some of the said newspapers, journalists are forbidden, for
instance, to interview activists from Islamic groups. In other pro-governemnt
newspapers, the editorial standpoints of the journalists are much influenced by such
closeness to the government 78 .
1-5-2 Freedom of the Movement of Journalists
In general, no restrictions are imposed on the movements of Moroccan journalists.
The facts confirm that. The complaints of journalist Ali al-Mourabit about
harassments that he was subject to while performing his duties are an exception to this
rule. This Moroccan journalist, whose three newspapers (Demain Magazine, Demain
in Arabic and Demain in French) were banned, and who spent months in jail before a
judgment was pronounced, prohibiting him from writing for 10 years, disclosed for a
number of newspapers recordings of security men who tracked his movements when
he was a correspondent for the Spanish daily "Il Mondo" in areas of the Moroccan
South.
With regard to foreign journalists, many facts were registered in the past few years
revealing the harassments they were subject to. For instance, the journalist Jean Pierre
Toquoi at the French daily "Le Monde" had already told Moroccan newspapers during
2006 that he was prohibited from entering Morocco 79 , saying that the Moroccan
authorities were not happy with the articles he wrote about Morocco, especially his
two banned books: "Last of the Kings", in which he gave details about the King's
private life and how the royal family is running the country, and "Your Majesty the
King: I Owe Your Father A Lot", which reveals the hidden secrets of the Moroccan-
French relations.
Other French journalists were subject to harassments in Morocco, like the expulsion
of Claude Govenille, the manager of the French News Agency Bureau during the past
few years because of a story reported by the news agency on issues relating to
Morocco. Another example is Joseph Tial who was accompanied by a team from
France 2 channel where he works, while visiting a place where one of the most
popular secret jails (Tazmamart) once stood under the late King Hassan II.
In the same context, more than one Spanish journalist complained about the
harassments that they were subject to when they tried to visit the desert areas disputed
between Morocco and the Algerian-backed Polissario Front.
1-5-3 Press and Judicial Verdicts
The lawsuits against newspapers and the subsequent judgments remain the most
controversial issue in the Moroccan media. In 2005 alone, 28 press-related cases were
filed before the Moroccan courts, six of which were automatically activated by the
78 Such as "Aujourd'hui Le Maroc", "La Vie Economique", "Maroc Soir" group, and "Maroc Hebdo".
79 See the interview with "al-Saheefa al-Maghribiyya" magazine in its issue No.25 of March 10, 2006.