Moroccan newspaper bans itself!

If you thought the media in Morocco was in a mess, you could well be on to something. Hot on the heels of the international embarrassment caused by the poor handling of the Nichane fiasco and the furor over the treatment of Aboubakr Jamaï, - comes the bizarre story of a newspaper suspending its own publication.


Assahifa, the Arabic language sister publication of the French language Le Journal Hebdomadaire, announced yesterday that it was going to suspend itself temporarily. Where the idea for this strange behaviour came from is not clear, but the paper has indeed sent itself to "the naughty corner" over an article they published on Tuesday about an oil discovery in the eastern town of Talsint.

In a press release, the daily said it suspends publication for "dysfunctions in its management" and apologized for the article after realizing that the letters, upon which the article was based, "include ambiguous and contradictory information, which remove their credibility."

The daily, which had earlier promised to publish on Wednesday, "the content of the letter sent by Michael Costin, President of the US oil company Skidmore," said it has finally decided not to publish it after the Moroccan Federation of Press Editors and the Press Union denounced the article as harming "press deontology and a violation of the laws in force in Morocco."

Aboubakr Jamaï, the publisher and al-Iraqi, a journalist from Assahifa's sister French-speaking weekly “Le Journal Hebdomadaire” were sentenced nine months ago to pay 3 million dirhams (US$354,000) in damages to Claude Moniquet, head of the Brussels-based security think tank European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center. Moniquet claimed Le Journal Hebdomadaire defamed him and his institute when it published a six-page critique in December 2005 that questioned the independence of the center’s report on the disputed Western Sahara. The two journalists were also fined 100,000 dirhams (US$11,800) as part of the judgment, which observers criticized as politically motivated.

Earlier this month, Aboubakr Jamaï, resigned in a move designed to shield the magazine from the damages he was ordered to pay last year in the controversial defamation suit.

His resignation was described by the Executive Director of the Committe to Protect Jornalists, Joel Simon, "...as a sad day for Morocco, which is losing one of its best and most courageous journalists.”

In recent weeks, court officials have visited Le Journal Hebdomadaire’s Casablanca office demanding payment of the damages and fines. Jamaï and al-Iraqi remain personally liable to pay the damages awarded to Moniquet. “I have no formal way of earning a wage in this country,” Jamaï told CPJ. “Any kind of revenue or property I acquire can be seized.”


Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news