Morocco bans French magazine for Islam insults

Local paper fined for erroneous story

RABAT (Hassan Al-Ashraf)

Freedom of the press suffered several blows in Morocco after the government banned a French magazine from the country because it insulted Islam and imposed a fine on a local paper for publishing an allegedly incorrect story.

The cover story of the most recent issue (Oct 30- Nov 5) of the French magazine L'Express International, "The Jesus-Mohammad Shock," compared Islam and Christianity and featured side-by-side portraits of Jesus and Mohamed, whose face was covered by a white veil in the Moroccan edition in a nod to local customs, but left uncovered in the French.

Ban defended

Morocco’s information minister said the ban, issued Sunday, was based on Article 29 of the Press Code, which grants the Information Minister the right to prohibit all publications that are damaging to Islam, the Monarchy, or state unity. He did not specify what exactly the offense was.

“Despite this particular attention, which shows our respect for the Moroccan public and the Muslim faith, we were banned," Christian Makarian, a chief editor, said in a statement on the magazine’s website. "I don't understand."

The statement noted that the series of articles about the religions was inspired by a meeting planned this week in Rome between Christian and Muslim scholars and was intended "to help the dialogue between Islam and Christianity."

When asked about the criticism leveled against the ban, Naciri rejected claims that the Moroccan people should be allowed to evaluate the articles for themselves and decide what is damaging and what is not.

"When the entire Muslim world, including Morocco, was infuriated at the Danish cartoons, were the Moroccan people mature or not?" Naciri told AlArabiya.net, referring to the 2006 protests over a series of cartoons deemed offensive to the prophet Mohammad that were published in a Danish newspaper.

Naciri argued that those who object to the ban are immature and dared them to be brave enough to declare that the government was wrong in imposing the ban.

Others argued that the ban was not aimed at hiding the truth but rather a commitment required by the state.

"Publications entering Moroccan soil are monitored and the authorities cannot overlook the circulation of a magazine that insults Islam or the prophet. Freedom of speech is granted, but within limits," Mohamed Darif, professor of political science at the Hassan II University, told AlArabiya.net.

Darif denied that the ban was meant to appease Islamists after the government shut down several Quran learning centers.

"There is no link. The closure decision was made by the by the Ministry of Interior while the ban decision was made by the Ministry of Information," he said.

Local paper faces closure

Mustafa al-Rameed, lawyer

In related news, the Rabat Court of Appeals confirmed a ruling that imposed a $800,000 fine on Morocco's main Arabic-language daily al-Massa for its "editorial policies."

Four deputies of the king's representative in the northern city of al-Qasr al-Kabir sued the paper for running a story last year reporting that one of them had attended a gay wedding in the city.

Al-Massa editor-in-chief Tawfiq Bou-Eshrin called the verdict political not judicial. The government took advantage of an incorrect story published in the paper to take its revenge even though the paper apologized and corrected the story, he said.

"They want to silence the paper for exposing corruption, bribery, abuse of power, and other important issues in Moroccan reality," he told AlArabiya.net.

Mustafa al-Rameed, a lawyer for the paper,, said the ruling was unprecedented in Morocco because of the excessive fine.

"The fine shows that the purpose is revenge and ruining the paper. Even a compensation for a murder or an accident is not that big," he told AlArabiya.net.

Rameed added that lawyers at the paper will appeal, although the ruling will be implemented in the meantime and therefore it could lose everything.

"This shows that we do not have an independent judiciary, but it serves other purposes," he said.

A member of the International Committee in Solidarity with al-Massa Jamal Rayan said the verdict is a death sentence for free press and muzzles journalists.

"This verdict will make journalists very cautious when tackling sensitive issues," he told AlArabiya.net.

Rayan added that the committee is currently contacting international rights organizations to launch a worldwide campaign in solidarity with the paper and its journalists.


(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid)