Election candidates urged to support press freedom

Reporters Without Borders called today on candidates in Morocco's 27 September parliamentary elections to take a firm stand in favour of freedom of expression. "This year, once again, many infringements of press freedom have occurred in Morocco, including intimidation and summoning of journalists and surveillance of independent publications" said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard. "A particularly harsh law about press freedom was also passed in May." Since this election has been presented as a symbol of the country's " democratic transition " we call on the future deputies to commit themselves, in the final days of the campaign, to substantially amending this press law and to taking other legislative action to strengthen press freedom in Morocco. On 16 August, Nordine Miftah, managing editor of the weekly Al Ayyam, was summoned by telephone, while in Agadir, by police who demanded that he come at once to Casablanca. There, he was interrogated for several hours about an interview that appeared on 11 July with an Islamic fundamentalist leader, Abdallah el-Chadli. Two days later, the reporter who conducted the interview, Anas Mezzour, was summoned for the same reason. Karim Selmaoui, a photographer with Journal hebdomadaire, was refused entry on 12 July to Mechouar Square, opposite the royal palace in Rabat, where the public celebration of King Mohammed VI's wedding was taking place. A government official ordered him out of the official car that was taking him, the special correspondent of the French magazine Paris Match and the technical crew of the Qatari TV station Al-Jazeera to the festivities. Selmaoui was properly accredited for the occasion. On 14 February, the Casablanca appeals court handed down to Journal hebdomadaire's managing editor, Aboubakr Jamai, and its general manager, Ali Amar, suspended jail sentences of respectively three and two months and awarded damages against them of 500,000 dirhams (about _50,000). Foreign minister Mohammed Benaissa had filed a complaint about articles that had criticised the way he bought a house in Washington in 1996 for the Moroccan embassy there when he was the ambassador. On 10 July, hearing of an appeal by Demain magazine was deferred until 11 December against the sentencing last 21 November of its managing editor, Ali Lmrabet, to four months imprisonment and a 30,000 dirhams (about _3,000) fine by a Rabat court for "putting out false news undermining public order or likely to do so." A Spanish journalist, Ignacio Cembrero, of the daily El Pais, was followed on 8 and 9 March after arriving in Rabat to write articles about the situation in Western Sahara. The Islamic fundamentalist media was also targeted. Since the beginning of April last year, access from Morocco has been blocked to the Internet website Rissalat al-Foutouwa (www.fotowa.com). Aljamaa.org and yassine.net, both set up by the fundamentalist group Justice and Charity and hosted by servers outside Morocco, have also been blocked. The new press law was passed by the House of Representatives on 6 May. Despite some positive aspects (lighter penalties for journalists, smaller fines, easier procedures for launching a publication and the need to give reasons for confiscation), the law was especially tough. Jail terms for insulting the king and the royal family remain, with offenders risking between three and five years in prison (compared with between five and 20 years previously). Article 29 retains the government's right to ban Moroccan or foreign newspapers if they are deemed to " undermine Islam, the monarchy, national territorial integrity or public order. "