AFGHANISTAN: 1 Ali Mohaqqiq Nasab, Haqooq-i-Zan (Women’s Rights) Imprisoned: October 1, 2005 The attorney general ordered editor Nasab’s arrest on blasphemy charges after the religious adviser to President Hamid Karzai, Mohaiuddin Baluch, filed a complaint about his magazine. “I took the two magazines and spoke to the Supreme Court chief, who wrote to the attorney…
MOROCCO Morocco’s independent press has grown bigger and bolder in recent years, challenging taboos against criticizing the monarchy and questioning Morocco’s claim to Western Sahara. In March, journalists welcomed a promise by Minister of Communications Nabil Benabdallah to end imprisonment as a punishment for offenses under the kingdom’s stringent press laws. The minister’s pledge, however,…
New York, February 15, 2006—The weekly Le Journal Hebdomadaire has accused Moroccan authorities of orchestrating protests against it for publishing a photograph of a French newspaper showing a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad. The Casablanca-based newspaper said in a statement that for two days this week protesters have demonstrated against it and that two state-run…
New York, January 18, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by a recent series of criminal cases against the Moroccan press, including criminal prosecutions of newspaper editors and the imposition of excessive fines on independent publications. Three journalists face possible imprisonment as a direct result of news or opinions published in their weeklies. Abdelaziz…
APRIL 12, 2005 Posted: April 13, 2005 Ali Lmrabet, Demain Libere LEGAL ACTION, CENSORED The Committee to Protect Journalists strongly condemned a Moroccan court’s decision to ban independent journalist and former newspaper owner Ali Lmrabet from practicing journalism for ten years. The sentence came just ten days before Lmrabet was expected to receive a license…
New York, April 12, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a Moroccan court’s decision today banning independent journalist and former newspaper owner Ali Lmrabet from practicing journalism for 10 years. The sentence comes just 10 days before Lmrabet was expected to receive a license to publish a new satirical weekly, Demain Libere. Lmrabet, who is…