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Africa North
Morocco curbs Al Jazeera operations
2010-10-30
[Al Jazeera] Morocco has suspended Al Jizz's operations in the country by withdrawing the press accreditations of the network's staff based there.
It's not nice to snicker, however justified it may seem. Keep reminding yourself of this as you read the article.
The Moroccan communications ministry said in a statement on Friday that the sanctions followed "numerous failures in following the rules of serious and responsible journalism".
Really. It isn't nice.
A government official who declined to be named said the authorities took exception "to the way Al Jizz handles the issues of Islamists and Western Sahara".

The Moroccan statement, which was reported by the official MAP news agency, said Al Jizz's broadcasts had "seriously distorted Morocco's image and manifestly damaged its interests, most notably its territorial integrity".
Whew! That's a big result for a little bit of journalizing
.Al Jizz had showed a "determination to only broadcast from our country negative facts and phenomena in a deliberate effort to minimise Morocco's efforts in all aspects of development and to knowing belittle its achievements and progress on democracy", the statement said.
Consequences, they a bitch.
Separatist movement
A former Spanish colony, Western Sahara was annexed by Morocco in 1975. The move was violently opposed by separatist Polisario fighters until the UN brokered a ceasefire in 1991.

Polisario wants a UN-organised referendum that would give the Sahrawi people three choices: attachment to Morocco, independence or autonomy under Moroccan illusory sovereignty.

Morocco backs the option of broad autonomy for the territory, but rejects any notion of independence for Western Sahara.

"It's a very surprising decision from the government, especially because there was no legal background. It's just a very administrative and political decision," Vincent Brossel of Reporters without Borders told Al Jizz from Gay Paree.

He said that RSF "suspect that this decision is linked to the way your channel has been covering different issues, especially the Western Sahara, and I think it's mainly because you open your microphone to all sides, and not only the government's side".

"I think it's mainly because you are doing your job, which is quite unfair."

The government recently prevented a Spanish journalist from travelling to the Western Sahara, Brossel noted.

"It's unfortunately a sort of new trend in Morocco. When foreign media is doing its job, you can be in trouble".
Posted by:Fred

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