Attacks on the Press - Committee to Protect Journalists

attacks on the press in 2009middle east and north africa: sudanjournalists and that trials related to freedom of expression were typically “unfair andpolitically motivated.” One case typified the perverse execution of justice.Al-Jarida al-Oula was assessed fines of more than 350,000 dirhams(US$43,000) in early year in connection with two defamation complaints filed byan executive for a pro-governmentnewspaper. KhalilHachemi Idrissi, publishingdirector of the FrenchlanguageAujourd’hui LeMaroc, had objected to Al-Jarida al-Oula’s coverage ofa 2008 episode in which aroyal in-law was accused ofshooting a traffic officer. Idrissi’spaper called Al-Jaridaal-Oula unpatriotic and unethicalfor covering a casethat was otherwise ignoredin the press. When Al-Jaridat o p developments»»Authorities censor, jail journalists tosilence coverage of the royal family.»»Politicized courts issue heavy defamationawards.100,000key statisticCopies of twoweeklies destroyedby authorities because they carried a pollabout the king.al-Oula retorted that it had “no lesson in ethics to learn” from Idrissi’s paper, theexecutive took the matter to court, claiming he and the judiciary had been insulted.In addition to the monetary penalties, Anouzla and Al-Jarida al-Oula columnistJamal Boudouma each received suspended prison sentences.On July 10, more than 20 dailies and weeklies withheld editorials to protestcourt decisions imposing heavy defamation damages against local publications.In an accompanying statement, the Moroccan Federation of Newspaper Editorsdenounced what it called “blind judicial escalation” against critical newspapers.The most outrageous of the verdicts was issued in June when a Casablancacourt ordered Al-Massae, Al-Jarida al-Oula, and Al-Ahdath al-Maghrebia each topay fines of 100,000 dirhams (US$12,500) and damages of 1 million dirhams(US$125,200) to Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi. The court found the independentdailies had insulted Qaddafi in opinion pieces that were critical of theLibyan leader. Moroccan prosecutors filed the case after getting protests from theLibyan Embassy in Rabat, defense lawyers said.Le Journal Hebdomadaire, a leading government critic, was dealt a potentiallycrippling blow in court. On September 30, the Supreme Court upheld a 2006 rulingthat ordered the weekly to pay damages of 3 million dirhams (US$354,000)in a defamation case filed by Claude Moniquet, head of the Brussels-based EuropeanStrategic Intelligence and Security Center. Moniquet said Le Journal Hebdomadairehad defamed him in an article questioning his group’s independence.The organization had issued a report on the disputed Western Sahara that thenewspaper said closely reflected the official view of the Moroccan government.In July, CPJ wrote to the king to express grave concerns about “the continueduse of the courts to suppress freedom of expression.” CPJ also wrote to U.S.Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in October to urge her to “impressupon Moroccan authorities that a free press is a crucial component of any freesociety.” Clinton at the time was on her way to Marrakesh, where the Moroccangovernment was about to host the Forum for the Future, a regional conference onfreedom and democracy.SUDANSudanese journalists worked amid political uncertaintyand severe restrictions. Pervasive official censorship restricted journalists fromclosely reporting on the tumultuous events of 2009: The International CriminalCourt (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir,sporadic fighting continued in the devastated region of Darfur, and a spike inethnic violence in South Sudan sparked fears of renewed warfare. Security agentsprevented coverage of topics deemed to be sensitive, including Darfur, the ICC,human rights issues, official corruption, the expulsion of aid agencies, and statecensorship itself. The legislature passed a stringent new press law, dashing hopesthat the repressive 2004 press law would be replaced with legislation up to internationalstandards. Though the government announced an end to prior censorshipin September, editors were unconvinced this would lead to significantchange. Many local journalists feared that official regulations and widespreadself-censorship could stifle hopes for a free and fair campaign in the lead-up tohistoric national elections scheduled for 2010.The planned elections, which have been postponed multiple times, are a centralcondition of Sudan’s north-south peace process. In January 2005, Sudan endeda two-decade civil war between the north’s Arab-Muslim elite and the south’simpoverished non-Muslim population with the signing of the ComprehensivePeace Agreement (CPA). As part of the agreement, the ruling Islamist NationalCongress Party and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement formed a governmentof national unity led by al-Bashir. Meanwhile, the conflict in Darfur, whichis thought to have caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, continued to simmerdespite the presence of a U.N.-backed regional peacekeeping force.Both the CPA and the 2005 interim constitution affirm the rights of freeexpression and press freedom. Despite these guarantees, authorities in Khartoumhave constructed an oppressive censorship regime through a variety of mech-230231