At a time when major reforms of the media and press freedoms are underway, a Moroccan court has upheld a defamation fine that has been the cause of much dispute throughout the country. Sadly, this can seen as a case of the government attempting to intimidate the media, rather than a hangover from the old system - a system that is under review. An example of how this is being reported comes from Scheherezade Faramarzi writing in the Washington Post.
Here is part of her article:
An appeals court on Tuesday upheld record damages imposed on a weekly newsmagazine in a defamation suit that some rights groups say the government is using to intimidate independent media.
A lower court ruled in February that Le Journal Hebdomadaire must pay damages of 3 million dirhams, or about $327,000, to the head of the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center, a think tank in Brussels, Belgium. The court also fined the magazine $10,900.
The head of the think tank, Claude Moniquet, argued the magazine defamed him and the institute by running an article that he said questioned the integrity of a study done by the center.
Its study said the United Nations should drop efforts to hold an independence referendum for Western Sahara, a mineral-rich former Spanish territory seized by Morocco in 1974. The rebel Polisario Front waged a long desert war seeking to end the annexation and gain independence.
The magazine said in December that the findings were so similar to official Morocco's views that it raised questions about whether the study was "guided by" and possibly paid for by the Moroccan government.
The punitive damages against the weekly's publisher, Aboubakr Jamai, and writer Fahd Iraqi were the biggest ever given journalists in Morocco, leading rights groups to question whether the courts were trying to curb media from taking independent stances on important matters.
"With this disproportionate sentence ... the judges are clearly trying to silence the journal," Reporters Without Borders said in a statement.
The group said the magazine wasn't allowed to mount a proper defense. During the trial, the judge barred Le Journal Hebdomadaire from introducing an expert witness, prompting the magazine to withdraw from the proceedings in protest.
The case was the latest example of often prickly relations between Morocco's journalists and officialdom that have arisen as the press has grown more vibrant since the ascent of King Mohammed VI to the throne in 1999.
Full article here: Washington Post
Another example of a commentator ignoring the progress being made is the article by Rashi Khilnani ( studied political science at McGill University, Canada, and international journalism at City University, London) READ IT HERE
Tags: Morocco Fes, Maghreb news
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