Arab Bloggers and Freedom of Press in the Arab World

TelQuel Fights Back - And You Can Help
This blog was one of the first to break the story about the Moroccan courts' crackdown on groundbreaking weekly magazine TelQuel

[Quick backgrounder: In March, TelQuel publishes cover story detailing King Muhammad VI's enormous salary. In August, a Moroccan judge hits TelQuel with a massive $112,000 fine for a supposedly unrelated case of defamation. The case is a sham and the judge ruled against TelQuel without even allowing the magazine's lawyer to speak. Editor Ahmed Benchemsi (right) now faces jail time if he does not pay the fine.]

After a few weeks of silence, a new issue of TelQuel is out - and it aims straight at the regime for attempting to quash freedom of the press. First, editor-in-chief Benchemsi pens a summary of the affair called "A Mockery of Justice", which runs with a cute accompanying cartoon (right).

Second, the magazine has launched a new website ("soutientelquel.com"- support TelQuel) with a support petition demanding freedom of the press and a transparent judicial process. Up only two days, the petition already has over 1,500 signatures.

Take a minute to support a daring but threatened Middle Eastern publication, a magazine committed to civil rights and self-critical introspection (name another magazine from the region to publish cover stories on homosexuality, reinterpreting the Quran, and the local dictator's salary). Sign the petition here. (For those who don't speak French, following the "continuation" link below for a translation.)


"In a rushed slander court case, the Editor of TelQuel Ahmed R. Benchemsi and his deputy Karim Boukhari were condemned - without even allowing their lawyer to speak - to two months in prison if they do not pay a 1,050,000 dirham [$112,000] fine. The two journalists are appealing.

"This prison sentence and this exorbitant fine constitute, without any doubt, a 'warning' by the authorities directed at TelQuel, which has been 'punished' for its editorial independence. The authorities have launched a new method for muzzling the press: choking it progressively through disproportionate fines, meted out via sham court cases. Though just TelQuel today, it is the entire Moroccan free press that is threatened tomorrow.

"We the undersigned forcefully denounce any attack, even indirect, on freedom of the press, and we demand justice for TelQuel via a transparent and fair legal process."


SIGN HERE (first name, last name, profession, city). Or use this Google translation to sign.

BRAVO_Haitham Sabbah of Sabbah's Blog