New York, June 6, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Moroccan authorities to investigate disturbing allegations that former high-ranking Interior Minister official Fouad Ali El Himma was the instigator of a demonstration in 2006 in Casablanca against an independent weekly for reporting on controversial Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed. Mustapha Ramid, a leading…
New York, May 7, 2008—Moroccan authorities should immediately reverse this week’s decision to prevent Al-Jazeera from broadcasting its evening roundup of regional news and views from Rabat, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On Tuesday, the Moroccan National Agency for Telecom Technical Regulation notified Al-Jazeera that the frequency it had used for the Rabat-based…
New York, May 2, 2008–To mark World Press Freedom Day, Moroccan journalist Mustafa Hormatallah began a three-day hunger strike today to protest his imprisonment in Casablanca, while journalists led by the National Syndicate of the Moroccan Press planned to stage a sit-in on Saturday.
New York, May 2, 2008—To mark World Press Freedom Day, Moroccan journalist Mustafa Hormatallah began a three-day hunger strike today to protest his imprisonment in Casablanca, while journalists led by the National Syndicate of the Moroccan Press planned to stage a sit-in on Saturday. Hormatallah, a journalist with the independent weekly Al-Watan Al An,…
New York, February 21, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the Moroccan Supreme Court’s decision to uphold a seven-month jail sentence against journalist Mustafa Hormatallah. Hormatallah, a member of the editorial board of the Moroccan weekly Al-Watan Al An, was convicted in August 2007 of possession of stolen documents. The conviction concerned an…
Under the Radar, a New Kind of RepressionBy Joel Campagna On a Wednesday afternoon last June, Yemeni security agents stormed the home of outspoken editor Abdel Karim al-Khaiwani and dragged him before a State Security Court in the capital, Sana’a. A prosecutor questioned al-Khaiwani and later rang him up on charges of belonging to a secret…
MOROCCO Press freedom continued its downward slide, belying Morocco’s carefully burnished image as a liberalizing country with a free press. Outspoken journalists found themselves in court, in prison, or out of work following a rash of politicized court cases, while the government of King Mohammed VI unveiled a restrictive new press bill. On May 3,…
FEBRUARY 3, 2008 Posted March 3, 2008 Rachid Niny, Al-Massae ATTACKED Rachid Niny, director of publication for the daily Al-Massae, told CPJ that around 8 p.m., three assailants attacked him very close to Al-Rabat al-Madina train station. He said the men, one of whom had a knife, came up behind him and started violently beating…
Washington, January 22, 2008—In testimony today before the House Middle East and South Asia Subcommittee, the Committee to Protect Journalists raised concern about mounting press freedom abuses in U.S. ally nations in the Middle East and urged the U.S. government to prioritize press freedoms in its bilateral relations.