Director of two banned weeklies to sue government
Morocco, Politics, 12/5/2000

Director of Le Journal and Assahifa, Boubker Jamai is planning to sue the Moroccan government following a decision made Saturday to ban the publishing and circulation of the two weeklies.

At a meeting with the press here Sunday, Jamai said he would publish other titles in replacement of those banned if he is compelled to do so. He said the two banned weeklies' editorial line was to truly inform Moroccans on events and issues at the national and international scale.

The three weeklies were banned for publishing a dossier on the circumstances of the 1972 coup attempt, led by General Oufkir, and a letter reportedly by Mohamed Basri, a leftist leader, and sent in the seventies to the late first secretary of the USFP, Abderrahim Bouabib, and Abderrahmane Youssoufi, current USFP first secretary, showing they were involved in the coup attempt.

Jamai asserted that Mohamed Basri is the author of the letter published by Le Journal and that the letter content does not concern at all the weekly. He added that he had been in possession of the letter for five months.

Editor in chief of Assahifa, Noureddine Miftah, on his part said there can be no democracy without the freedom of the press. He deemed that the old political strives have been replaced today by a strife between the government and the independent press because this press says the truth.

Director of Demain, Ali Lmrabet, recalled that his weekly has been facing several hindrances since it was launched, a fact that prevented it from fulfilling its mission in normal conditions.

Fkih Basri sent the chiefs of Le Journal and Assahifa a statement asserting that he knew nothing about the publishing of the letter.

The Moroccan government decided Saturday, in conformity with article 77 of the code of the press, to ban the publishing and circulation of three weeklies Le Journal, Demain and Assahifa, for having "deliberately attacked Morocco's most sacred institutional foundations," a communiqué by the Prime Minister had said.

Previous Stories:
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  King Mohammed holds phone talks with Mauritanian president   (11/20/2000)
  MAP, radio and tv to get an adequate legal framework, minister says   (11/18/2000)

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