Moroccan newspaper Al-Michaal was banned on 13 November after editor in chief Driss Chahtan was sentenced to one year in prison and a 10,000 dirham fine as punishment for his articles about the health of King Mohamed VI. Two other journalists on the paper, Rasheed Mahameed and Mostafa Hiran, were sentenced to three months in prison and fines of 5000 dirham for writing similar articles.
The Moroccan government is suing daily newspaper Akhbar Al Youm after it published a cartoon of Prince Moulay Ismail. The government said the cartoon showed “blatant disrespect” to the royal family.
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On 2 August it was reported that Moroccan magazines Telle Qu’elle and Nichane were confiscated after publishing a survey about how Moroccan’s view the monarchy. The government has promised to carry out the same action on any paper or magazine which publishes the survey. This is despite the fact that the monarchy was seen as “positive or very positive” by 91 per cent of Moroccans, according to the survey. The Minister of Communication, Khaled Nasseri, said: “The Moroccan monarchy is not a debatable subject.”
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A schoolboy in Morocco has been sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for insulting the country’s monarch.
The 18-year-old allegedly changed the ‘God, Fatherland, King’ national slogan on his school blackboard to ‘God, Fatherland, Barcelona’. Read more here
