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Morocco: Weekly Banned for "Anti-Islamic" Jokes
Reporters Without Borders said it firmly and utterly condemns a ban that has been slapped on the Arabic-language weekly "Nichane" and legal action launched against it for "damaging Islam".
The prosecutor's office decided to take legal proceedings against editor Driss Ksikes and journalist Sanaa Al Aji for "damaging the Islamic religion" and "publication and distribution of articles contrary to morality". "In taking this double step, the Moroccan authorities remind anyone who might have forgotten that the judicial arsenal is always available to curb the free expression of Moroccan journalists," the worldwide press freedom organisation said. Despite promises and commitments made by Rabat in recent months, the "red lines" are still clearly there to constrain all journalist work, it said. Forbidden issues include the sacred status of the king, Islam as the state religion, Western Sahara, the army or morals. These bans are found as often in the 2002 press code as in the anti-terror law or the draft law on opinion polls, and always in terms vague enough to allow the widest interpretation. The same bans also appear in an ethical charter recently adopted by the federation of press editors. Posted by: Fred 2006-12-25 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=176042 |