Weeklies ban still sparks responses
Morocco, Politics, 12/6/2000

The Moroccan government's decision last Saturday to ban the publishing and circulation of three weeklies, namely Le Journal, Assahifa and Demain, is still sparking responses from various sides.

The Party of Justice and Development (PJD/ represented in the parliament) denounced the ban on the weeklies describing the measure as "an attempt to the freedom of the press." The papers were banned "on the basis of article 77 of the press law that gives all prerogatives to the government, making of it the judge and party, to hamper the mission of the press," said the PJD in a statement, calling the government to stop the process of attempts to public freedoms and to reconsider "this unfair decision."

The ban was decided after the weeklies published a dossier on the circumstances of the coup d'état of 1972, led by General Oufkir, and a letter reportedly by Fkih Basri, a leftist leader, 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.

The PJD statement-- made public at the end of a meeting Monday of the party secretariat general devoted to discussing the incidence of the publishing of Fkih Basri's letter-said such cases should be settled by a free and honest justice in the frame of the rule of the law.

The Moroccan Association of Human Rights (AMDH) asked the government to immediately cancel the ban decision that harms, it said in a communiqué, the freedom of opinion and of speech and consequently the rights guaranteed by the Moroccan constitution and international conventions on Human rights.

AMDH calls human rights activists and democratic forces to decry the decision and to struggle for its cancellation. It also called for further efforts for a comprehensive revision of the public freedoms law, including the press code, to shield rights and freedoms against any attempt.

In the same vein, the Youth association of the Istiqlal Party (PI/in the governmental coalition) called for the immediate cancellation of the banning decision.

The reasons behind the government's decision are not less serious than the banning itself, the youth association said adding it will carry on the struggle for the freedom of the press and of speech.

Previous Stories:
  Moroccan weeklies banning triggers responses   (12/5/2000)
  Director of two banned weeklies to sue government   (12/5/2000)
  The press in Morocco has never been so free, prime minister   (12/5/2000)

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