Call for return of material seized from two French TV reporters

Reporters Without Borders calls on the Moroccan authorities to return the video footage and other material they seized from two French journalists who were deported today after being arresting yesterday in Rabat for filming without permission. Police arrested the two journalists, Jean-Louis Perez and Pierre Chautard of the Premières Lignes agency, at the headquarters of the Moroccan Association of Human Rights. Reporters Without Borders regards their arrest and the confiscation of their material as a disgraceful act of censorship. “There can be absolutely no justification for trying to intimidate journalists by ostentatiously following them, arresting them in a heavy-handed manner and searching their hotel room,” Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Christophe Deloire. “The Moroccan authorities clearly wanted to prevent this documentary being made and to obtain information about the journalists’ sources. Morocco cannot censor French journalists who requested permission to film without getting a reply. We demand the immediate return of the material they filmed.” Perez and Chautard went to Morocco to make a documentary about the economy and human rights for the France 3 TV channel.