Magazine banned for jokes

2006-12-22 19:32

Rabat - A Moroccan magazine has been banned by the government after it published a list of popular jokes about religion, sex and politics.

Government officials said on Thursday that the magazine would stay off newsstands until a ruling by judicial authorities.

The Casablanca state prosecutor said the article in Arab-language magazine Nichane was an attack on Islam and went "against morals and customs", state news agency MAP cited a judicial source as saying.

The prosecutor ordered an investigation into the article and began legal action against the editor, Driss Ksikes, and reporter Sanaa Al Aji.

Prime Minister Driss Jettou issued an injunction banning Nichane, which means "As It Is", from being distributed, sold or displayed on the street.

Communications minister Nabil Benabdallah said the injunction would remain until the judicial authorities have had their say.

"We cannot accept, under the pretext of freedom of expression, this immoral article," he told reporters in Rabat.

Freedom of speech tested

Morocco has carried out a programme of liberal reforms since King Mohammed came to power in 1999.

Foreign observers say its media is now one of the freest in the Arab world.

Several independent titles regularly test the limits of that freedom in articles criticising government policy and attacking corruption and nepotism.

Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders said the Nichane ban was politically motivated.

"These measures ... arise from an electoral calculation ahead of polls which could be marked by a strong rise by the Islamist movement," said the group in a statement.

Benabdallah told parliament on Wednesday that a new press code planned for next year would eliminate most prison sentences against journalists.

But critics say liberalisation has stalled in recent years on fears that it could threaten the ruling Alawite dynasty.

- Reuters