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

Whether in the past or today, there were no assassinations, abduction or taking of
journalists as hostages. However, this does not mean the absence of harassments
against a number of them. In many cases, journalists were subject to inspection,
surveillance or property confiscation.
Whereas such practices are not common anymore, some of the reported cases
revealed that harassments were ongoing. The case of journalist Ali al-Murabit,
mentioned above in this report, is an example, but is not the only case. During April
2006, the director of the International Agency for Communications and the Press
complained that his camera was confiscated by bodyguards of King Mohammed VI,
while he was taking a picture of the King in his car parked in a street in Casablanca.
The National Union for the Moroccan Press, in its report on the occasion of the World
Freedom of Speech Day (March 3, 2006), mentioned other examples of constraints on
the freedom of the press, the most serious being the aggression or harassment against
a number of correspondents, by authorities, or elected members or anonymous
individuals who have interests or may belong to local mafias, without being provided
with any security protection. The headquarters of "Here and Now" (Houna wal An)
magazine based in Wirzazat, were set on fire on the eve of June 22, 2005, after the
magazine director was summoned by the royal police, according to the annual report
on the freedom of the press published by the National Union for the Moroccan Press
on May 3, 2006.
1-5-5 Civil Society Organizations and Protection of Journalists:
Although the Moroccan society is fragile, with weak capabilities, and part thereof is
infiltrated by the State and the other is linked to political parties taking part in the
government, this does not mean that violations related to the press are reflected in the
civil society. Some of the rights defense organizations in Morocco, especially the
Moroccan Human Rights Association and the Moroccan Human Rights Organization
are an example in this regard. In every case against journalists or newspapers, such
organizations and associations issued statements denunciating the harassments against
newspapers. Sometimes, such organizations staged protests in the streets to condemn
violations of freedoms. The protest that was called by the Moroccan Human Rights
Association on February 23, 2006, parallel to the beginning of the trial of the weekly
"al-Ayyam" is an example in this regard. There were other rallies organized by human
rights activists. In the protest called by "Tel Qu'il" magazine, following a harsh court
judgment against it in a case to which a female member of parliament was also party,
human activists were strongly present. This was also the case when another magazine
"Le Journal" organized a press conference after the Ministry of Interior confronted it
and after a judgment was pronounced against it in the case of the European
Information and Security Center's report on the Polissario Front. In this latter case, the
Moroccan Human Rights Organization, in a first-of-a-kind initiative, filed a complaint
to the Supreme Audio-Visual Commission related to its manner of dealing with the
public media, especially Channel 2, and organized a protest in front of the mentioned
magazine.
When the director of the two weeklies "Le Journal" and "al-Saheefa al-Jadeedah"
banned at the end of 2000 went on a hunger strike, protesting against being denied a
license to publish other publications, some right activists expressed readiness to go on
a hunger strike with him, which was noteworthy.