Morocco: Smothering the Free Press

Over twenty independent Moroccan newspapers and magazines, in an unprecedented show of discontent, published blank editorials to protest the government’s legal campaign to silence them. Since the press law reform of 2002, Moroccan media have seen an increase in stiff criminal penalties and civil damages against journalists and the publications they write for. So stiff, in fact, that if a country’s wealth were to be guaged by the fines it imposes on its free media, Morocco would be considered one of the richest countries in the world. The punitive judicial sanctions were levied for what the Moroccan authorities perceived as libeling government officials, institutions, and foreign dignitaries, undermining the nation’s image by reporting on the criminal involvements of government representatives, insulting Islam’s tenets, and disrespecting the person of the king. Many believe the government’s perception to be skewed and that the court rulings were motivated by political retributions orchestrated by incumbent officials and affluent businessmen who collude among themselves to advance their personal agenda at the expense of the citizens’ and are incensed to see their despoiling of Morocco’s national treasures plastered on the front pages of dailies and weeklies; the government’s insistent push for ruinous fines against the independent media and jail terms against its journalists aims at garroting their ability to report to the public on the undemocratic practices of the Moroccan authorities.

The Moroccan government has found the use of the unabashedly partisan judicial system an effective tool to stifle the national debate and booby-trap the public’s right – a right guaranteed by the most basic of democratic principles – to know. Freedom of the press and expression, both inalienable rights in any democracy, are emerging as a threat to government officials disinclined to commit to democracy and whose usual nostrums to Morocco’s political, economic, and social woes are frequently criticized by journalists and citizens alike. At a time when Morocco’s advance toward democracy seemed possible, the governments of Abbas El Fassi and Driss Jettou, instead of fostering a less ominous environment within which archaic dogmas could be challenged, national political issues could be debated, and the population’s understanding of positive political engagement could be enhanced, created a climate that frizzles with intimidation prompting journalists to leave Morocco or stir clear of reporting on topics considered impermissible.

Aside from Al Ahdath Al Maghrebia, Al Massae, and Al Jarrida Al Oula recently slapped with exorbitant fines for allegedly defaming Qaddafi by labeling him a despot, other victims of the government’s visceral distaste for dissention and unbiased journalism come to mind: Ali Lmrabet for calling the Sahraouis in Tindouf “refugees,” Abdelaziz Koukas of Al-Ousbouiya al-Jadida for his interview with Nadia Yassine, Aboubakr Jamaï and Fahd al-Iraqi of le journal hebdomadaire for questioning the integrity of the Brussels-based European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center and its head Claude Moniquet’s pro-Moroccan report on Western Sahara, Driss Ksikes and Sanaa al-Aji of Nichane on their sociological study on Moroccan political and religious humor.

In the absence of measures to check our political leaders’ actions and balance their power, Morocco’s nascent independent media remains the only tool by means of which a notoriously opaque and graft-ridden government that lacks accountability could be refocused to do the bidding of the citizenry. The Moroccan government ‘selective approach to democracy is erosive and will render the country feckless and divided. There are no alternatives, then, to an independent media whose rights should be protected and its advocates encouraged instead of browbeaten and jailed. Or Khaled Al Naseri could do as Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal Al Maleki did when in a meeting with the Iraqi journalists’ union January of 2009, he pledged to give them free plots of land in exchange of positive coverage.  

A. T. B. Copyright © 2009