Published on 13 February 2009
31 October 2009 - Suspended jail terms and exorbitant damages award against newspaper publisher and cartoonist
30 October 2009 - Open letter to Hillary Clinton
28 October 2009 - Tension affects news conference in Casablanca in support of Moroccan media
Reporters Without Borders is alarmed to learn that the publisher and editor of the Arabic-language newspaper Al-Ayam were arrested and questioned for wanting to do a report about the king’s mother, a subject regarded as off-limits in Morocco.
“Police measures of this kind result in abuses that we find very disturbing,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Political and judicial harassment of the Moroccan news media is growing steadily in intensity. We hope the authorities do not take the case against Al-Ayam any further.”
Around 20 members of the National Department of Criminal Investigation (BNPJ) raided Al-Ayam’s Casablanca headquarters at 6 pm on 10 February demanding to see publisher Noureddine Miftah and editor Maria Moukrim, who were both out of the office at time.
After arresting Miftah at a friend’s home and Moukrim at her own home, the police took them to the newspaper and made them watch while they searched the premises for photos of the king’s mother.
They then took Mistah and Moukrim to BNPJ headquarters and questioned them about their sources until 3 am. Moukrim was questioned again for more than four hours on the afternoon of 11 February.
Adel Kareem Nabil Suleiman, better known by the pen name Kareem Amer, was arrested on 6 November 2006, for articles published on his blog .
