(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned a 24 May 2005 assault on Munir El Ktaoui, a journalist with the weekly “El Bidawi”. El Ktaoui was covering the Rabat meeting of a pro-government lobby favourable to continued Moroccan control of Western Sahara. “Moroccan journalists are now expected to take sides against the Front Polisario [a political-military movement […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned a 24 May 2005 assault on Munir El Ktaoui, a journalist with the weekly “El Bidawi”. El Ktaoui was covering the Rabat meeting of a pro-government lobby favourable to continued Moroccan control of Western Sahara.
“Moroccan journalists are now expected to take sides against the Front Polisario [a political-military movement claiming independence for the Western Sahara]”, said RSF.
“As soon as a media outlet quotes separatist movements or Front Polisario members, it is immediately denounced as a traitor by over-zealous individuals who want to be seen in a good light by the authorities in order to gain administrative postings. There is a real exploitation of the Western Sahara question for personal ends. The assault on Munir El Ktaoui recalls the harassment of Ali Lmrabet, who also dared to report on the Western Sahara issue,” the organisation added.
Several journalists, including El Ktaoui, were in a hotel in the capital to cover a reunion of local Sahrawi elected officials. Khalihanna Uled Rashid, chairman of the Laâyoune local council and former minister for Sahrawi affairs, took advantage of the occasion to fiercely criticise the independent press.
Brandishing a copy of “El Bidawi”, Rashid described the paper as a “gutter press” before throwing it to the ground. When El Ktaoui’s presence became known, he was ordered to leave the room on the grounds that he was not Sahrawi. When he refused, several local officials first threatened and then threw him out of the room, kicking and punching him. They also destroyed his camera.
“El Bidawi” is an Arabic-language weekly that dares to tackle taboo subjects, including the monarchy, Islamist networks in Morocco and the Western Sahara question. The paper has also published an interview with Front Polisario leader Mohammad Abdelaziz, as well as several reports on the needs of populations in the south, which are virtually ignored in the political debates on Western Sahara.
