IPS-English MEDIA-MOROCCO: Censorship Begins At Home
 
Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 14:57:49 -0700


MEDIA-MOROCCO: Censorship Begins At Home
Abderrahim El Ouali

CASABLANCA, Aug 21  (IPS)  - A new press law has created a 
regulatory council comprising journalists that some fear could 
lead to censorship by media persons rather than the government.

The new law provides for setting up a National Press Council 
(NPC) to deal with complaints of excesses within the media. The 
law does not specify what these complaints could be but sets out 
what the NPC could do about them.

”There are disciplinary sanctions such as admonitory letters, 
cancelling the professional card for three to five years, and 
fines as well,” Said Essoulami, executive director of the Centre 
for Media Freedom in Middle East and North Africa (CMFMENA) told 
IPS. CMFMENA is an independent group with headquarters in London 
and a supporting office in Casablanca. 

The new legislation follows several other acts passed ostensibly 
to defend and promote freedom of the media. ”Amendments of the 
press law have been made frequently since the country entered 
what is commonly known as the democratic transition,” Youssef 
Saket, a journalist with the Assabah (Dawn) newspaper told IPS.

The democratic transition began with the appointment of 
opposition leader Abderrahmane Youssoufi as prime minister by 
King Hassan II in 1998. Under constitutional monarchy in Morocco, 
the prime minister is appointed by the king.

But the democratic transition, that supposedly continued under 
the present monarch Mohammed VI who came to the throne Jul. 30, 
1999, has meant that tough laws that provide for imprisonment for 
journalists for publishing offences remain in place.

”This has led to strong reservations about the law,” Saket said. 
”It can mean hindering professional work because the judiciary 
itself is not fully independent.”

The Syndicate of Journalists (SNPM) and the Federation of 
Publishers (FP) have been lobbying since 2002 for a new law that 
would end imprisonment for journalists. Besides denial of 
freedom, ”incarcerating journalists gives an unsuitable image 
abroad of the efforts within Morocco towards democracy and public 
freedoms,” Saket said.

Under the new bill journalists can be imprisoned for defaming the 
king and the princes, and for endangering territorial unity. That 
usually means references to Western Sahara where the political 
group, the Polisario, has been fighting for independence from 
Morocco. 

The Polisario was set up in 1973. The conflict over Western 
Sahara continues, though Moroccan and Polisario leaders have held 
two rounds of negotiations in the United States, and will meet 
again in Switzerland.

But despite past promises, tough laws have been kept in place. 
Youssoufi, who was prime minister from 1998 to 2003, maintained 
the law that could ban a newspaper without giving it the right to 
appeal. He invoked the law to ban two publications, Assahifa and 
Le Journal in 2000.

In the wake of such laws and practices, many journalists fear 
that the NPC could become an instrument for censorship.

”The NPC will be doing what the government does no more -- ban 
newspapers. This means journalists will begin to censor other 
journalists, and this is very dangerous,” Saket said.

Essoulami said the NPC mandate goes beyond professional duties. 
Under the bill, the NPC can rule on journalists' conduct socially 
and even privately. ”We all know from experience that it was pure 
fascism that tried to create modelled persons who all look 
alike.”

This would be an antidemocratic measure, he said. ”Only 
dictatorships take such control over journalists.”

Other journalists fear that civil society representatives within 
the NPC can make the wrong judgments because they are not media 
professionals. Again, there are fears that like the judiciary, 
civil society too is not independent, and that most members of 
non-government organisations have political affiliations. 

While the setting up of the NPC is awaited with some 
apprehension, journalists continue to face imprisonment under the 
present law. Abderrahim Ariri, managing director of the newspaper 
al-Watan al-Ane (Motherland Now) and Mustapha Hormatallah, 
journalist with the same newspaper, have been imprisoned on 
charge of publishing defence secrets.

The paper carried excerpts from reports by intelligence services 
on fighting terrorism. The two arrested men were asked to reveal 
the names of the sources for the report. Moroccan law does not 
allow journalists to keep their sources secret.

 (END/IPS/MM/IC/IP/HD/AO/SS/07)


 
= 08211446 ORP008 NNNN