{"id":48308,"date":"2013-07-09T09:07:34","date_gmt":"2013-07-09T08:07:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/?p=48308"},"modified":"2017-03-28T10:32:15","modified_gmt":"2017-03-28T09:32:15","slug":"free-speech-sidelined-in-morocco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/?p=48308","title":{"rendered":"Free speech sidelined in Morocco"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite promising reform and introducing a new constitution in 2011, Morocco\u2019s treatment of dissidents indicates the changes were just window dressing, Samia Errazzouki writes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Morocco’s King Mohammed VI announced a constitutional reform process during a 9 March 2011 speech, following popular protests organised by the 20 February Movement. Regime supporters and allies — France and the United States — hailed the move towards reform as “unprecedented.”\u00a0Morocco was soon referred to as the \u201cmodel for the region.”<\/p>\n

But the government\u2019s repression of freedom of expression has remained steadfast even after the new constitution.<\/p>\n

Most recently, in March 2013 dissident rapperMouad Belghouat<\/a>\u00a0(alias El Haqed) was released from jail after he served his second, year-long prison sentence over his anti-regime lyrics, which were described as \u201cundermining state authority.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"posztosIn February 2012, 18-year old\u00a0Walid Bahomane<\/a>\u00a0was charged with \u201cdefaming Morocco\u2019s sacred values\u201d after he posted a caricature of Mohammed VI on Facebook. Even though he did not create the illustration, Bahomane was convicted and sentenced to one year in prison for the act of\u00a0sharing the image.<\/p>\n

In the same month,\u00a0Abdessamad Hidour<\/a>, an activist with the 20 February Movement faced similar charges after a video of him criticising Mohammed VI was uploaded on Youtube. In the video, he likened Mohammed VI\u2019s reign to colonialism and railed against his corrupt practices, landing him a three-year prison sentence.<\/p>\n

These are only a few cases out of many that have drawn widespread attention over the nature of the charges as well as the expedited trials that landed all those charged in jail.<\/p>\n

Morocco’s latest constitution supposedly grants the right to freedom of expression, but it still leaves room for repression.<\/p>\n

The king\u00a0stacked the constitutional reform deck by appointing the committee to undertake the work. The reforms introduced some liberalisation, but did not address demands for democratisation of the system. It\u2019s an old trick dating to the 1960s when Morocco\u2019s first constitution was drafted following its independence from France.<\/p>\n

The latest version of the constitution<\/a> incorporates human rights language and places greater attention on the legal protection of free speech, such as the following:<\/p>\n