Moroccan editor detained for linking to al Qaeda video
Moroccan police have arrested the editor of the website Lakome after he posted a link to a video from the North African al Qaeda branch
Ali Anouzla, the director of Lakome’s Arabic-language website, was first accused of posting the video containing a call to violence, said the Moroccan attorney general on Tuesday. A subsequent statement accused him instead of merely publishing a link to the video. He is currently being held in Rabat.
The video, which was first published on Thursday last week, sharply criticised the Moroccan king for despotism and corruption. It also called on Moroccan youth to engage in jihad. YouTube later removed the video at the request of Moroccan authorities.
The link that Anouzla was accused of providing led to a version of the video hosted by the Spanish newspaper El Pais.
Aboubakr Jamaï, the director of Lakome’s French-language website said the Moroccan authorities were acting “inconsistently” in the case when he spoke to IMS on Thursday.
“Ali Anouzla and Lakome have been targeted because they are trying hard to produce the kind of public service journalism that the regime succeeded in almost completely annihilating.
“The inconsistencies in the authorities’ attitude in this affair are astounding. If the terrorism threat was so serious, why wait four days before reacting,” Aboubakr Jamaï said.
IMS’ Egyptian partner Arabic Network for Human Rights Information published a statement on Tuesday denouncing the arrest, saying that dozens of Egyptian journalists and media professionals stand in solidarity with the prominent Moroccan journalist.
Ali Anouzla is well known in Morocco for his columns critical of the government and his calls for greater press freedom. His website Lakome has reported on corruption and abuses within the Moroccan government since its establishment in 2010.
According to Virginie Jouan, IMS’ Programme Manager for Morocco, the government of Morocco usually tolerates mild criticism from the media, but censorship and self-censorship is an integrated part of Moroccan journalism.
In recent years however, several newspapers have been targeted in “politicised criminal proceedings” for criticising the government or for covering taboo subjects such as the health of the king or the royal family, says the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
