Moroccan authorities continue to stifle free press and freedom of speech in the country, the press watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a report published January 29. According to the New York-based rights group, the independent Le Journal Hebdomadaire is under threat from the government, who have been upset at the recent articles being published. CPJ said it is part of Morocco's “efforts to silence” the newspaper. Authorities took control of the publication last week after a Casablanca appeals court said that its current publisher, Trimedia, and its former one, Media Trust, had gone bankrupt. Aboubakr Jamai, co-founder and former managing director of Le Journal Hebdomadaire, told CPJ that Trimedia could have paid the news magazine’s creditors “had the authorities refrained from regularly ordering advertisers to boycott†the publication. The news magazine’s assets were seized on Wednesday, CPJ reported. Le Journal Hebdomadaire published most recently last week. Le Journal Hebdomadaire was dealt a devastating financial blow in 2006 when a Moroccan court ordered that it pay 3 million dirhams ($354,000) damages in a defamation case filed by Claude Moniquet, head of the Brussels-based European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center. Moniquet said Le Journal Hebdomadaire had defamed him in an article questioning his group’s independence. The organization had issued a report on the disputed Western Sahara that the news magazine said closely reflected the official view of the Moroccan government. Jamai left the country after the 2006 court decision and a series of government-inspired cases of harassment against the newsmagazine. Harassment of Le Journal Hebdomadaire appeared to ease for a time. But when Jamai returned to Morocco in 2009 and resumed his critical journalism, he said, the government intensified its efforts to have advertisers boycott Le Journal Hebdomadaire. In September 2009, the Supreme Court upheld the damage award in the Moniquet case. “We condemn the strategy of using the courts to silence critical publications,†said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program coordinator Mohamed Abdel Dayem. CPJ wrote to King Mohamed VI in July 2009 to express disappointment with “the continuous use of the courts to suppress freedom of expression.†The ramblings over free speech and press rights have been hitting a head in Morocco, with a number of bloggers and writers under constant attack from the government, who are attempting to silence opposition voices in the country, Global Voices reported earlier and which international rights groups have documented. BM
