Morocco

Local journalists and media activists reporting on the occupation and Moroccan abuses face legal obstacles and risk lengthy jail sentences in order to make their voices heard.

A new report by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Information warns that despite relative improvement in the state of freedom of association in Morocco, practices formerly beleaguering local and international rights organizations in the kingdom may reemerge.

Detainees are living in “deplorable conditions and constant humiliation”.

One year after protests erupted in the northern city of Al Hoceima, Moroccan media are still struggling to cover the news, despite intimidation and legal threats from Moroccan authorities.

RSF has registered many media freedom violations since the start of a wave of protests in Morocco’s northern Rif region and accuses the authorities of deliberately obstructing the Moroccan and foreign reporters who have been trying to cover the unrest.

Moroccan security forces arrested Mohamed al-Asrihi, a video journalist and the director of the opposition news website Rif24; he had Al-Asrihi produced video coverage of protests in the Rif area of northern Morocco, and of its imprisoned leader.

Are the authorities trying to hide what is going on in the Rif? According to the information so far gathered by RSF, two journalists have been arrested and three have gone into hiding in the past few days, while an Algerian journalist has been deported.

The country’s new legislation takes prison terms for peaceful free speech out of one law, only to put it right back into another.

Authorities in Morocco continue two-year campaign of prohibiting and obstructing activities of the country’s largest independent human rights organization.

This statement was originally published on hrw.org on 12 January 2017. Morocco in 2016 adopted important legal reforms but at the same time targeted selected opposition voices and protests for repression, Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2017. Authorities restricted the activities of local human rights associations and systematically prevented pro-independence gatherings in […]

This statement was originally published on hrw.org on 12 January 2017. Morocco in 2016 adopted important legal reforms but at the same time targeted selected opposition voices and protests for repression, Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2017. Authorities restricted the activities of local human rights associations and systematically prevented pro-independence gatherings in […]

The Western Sahara conflict is among the world’s least covered. But that is not keeping Morocco from exploring new ways to make life impossible for media and Sahrawis alike.

Italian investigative journalists Luigi Pelazza and Mauro Pilay, who work for the TV programme Le Lene, were arrested by ten plainclothes policemen in Marrakesh and were accused of not obtaining permission to investigate a child prostitution network in the city.

Italian investigative journalists Luigi Pelazza and Mauro Pilay, who work for the TV programme Le Lene, were arrested by ten plainclothes policemen in Marrakesh and were accused of not obtaining permission to investigate a child prostitution network in the city.

Despite the introduction of a new and improved press law, the mixture of legal tools used to imprison, harass, censor, and fine journalists for their reporting are all still available.

In an interview with IFEX, cartoonist Khalid Gueddar, who recently launched the first-ever satirical weekly newspaper in Morocco, discussed his new venture, the challenges that stand in his way, and his aspirations for the future of satire in Morocco.