New York, May 8, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the Monday, May 6, confiscation of the intellectual and political magazine Wijhat Nadhar.
Wijhat Nadhar editor El-Mostafa Soulaih told CPJ that staff contacted him from Al-Najah al-Jadidah printing press in Casablanca and told him that agents from the secret service, the Direction de la surveillance du territoire (DST), had taken all 8,000 copies of the magazine, which was set for distribution on Tuesday, May 7.
Authorities never told Soulaih why the edition was seized. But it did contain the text of a speech by Moulay Hichem, the cousin of King Muhammad VI and a frequent critic of the monarchy who is second in line to the throne.
According to Soulaih, the same speech has appeared in other publications in Morocco.
“We strongly protest this flagrant act of censorship,” said CPJ executive director Ann Cooper. “We urge Moroccan authorities to allow Wijhat Nadhar to resume publishing without further delay.”
