Arab Press Takes a Hit

Elections are wonderful in theory. In practice in the Middle East, however, they haven't done much to advance progress simply because the region so lacks democratic institutions like a free press that are the basis of democracy. In that sense, what is happening in Morocco today is just as destructive to freedom in the Middle East as the sectarian chaos unfolding in Iraq.

I'm talking about the intense pressure on Moroccan editor Aboubakr Jamai in a government-supported libel case that could lead to the closure of his weekly Casablanca newspaper, Le Journal Hebdomadaire, one of a very few brave publications in the Arab world. Since he started the French-language paper in 1997 and its Arabic sister weekly Assahifa al-Ousbouiya in 1998, he has been fearless in holding the Moroccan monarchy to account. His hard-hitting reports have thrown light on King Mohammed VI's business dealings, questioned the government's claims about economic progress, looked into Moroccan links to secret prisons for terrorist suspects and called religious leaders to account for anti-Semitism. As Joel Campagna of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists puts it, "Jamai has set a standard for independence and expanded the margin of debate in the Middle East. And he has done it under extremely difficult circumstances."

Mohammed VI came to power in 1999 and has implemented some impressive reforms, notably in the areas of women's rights and exposing truth about political crimes committed during the reign of his father King Hassan II. But unfortunately Mohammed VI has sought to maintain his father's tight grip on Morocco's news media and Jamai has thus been a constant thorn in his side. Authorities have shut Le Journal down in the past. Once it was after an interview with the leader of the Polisario Front demanding independence in the Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara. Another time, it was after Le Journal linked a sitting government official to the murder of an opposition leader in the 1950s.

The regime never tired of looking for other ways of silencing Jamai. Last spring, authorities apparently tried branding him as an apostate. Government officials appeared to have orchestrated the protests outside Le Journal's offices against the paper's coverage of the Danish cartoon controversy. Jamai had published a 10-page special supplement thoughtfully covering the question of whether caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed insulted Islam. Jamai was careful not to republish the cartoons—he personally believed they were offensive to Islam though defended the Danish newspaper's right to publish them. But the state-controlled media whipped up attention on a wire-service photo in Le Journal's coverage of a French newspaper that front-paged some of the drawings, leaving the public with the impression that Le Journal had repeated the Danish offense to Muslims.

Jamai survived the cartoon affair, but he may have met his match in a libel case against Le Journal that was enthusiastically supported by Mohammed VI's government. The problem began when Jamai published a story suggesting that a study published by a French researcher named Claude Moniquet on the disputed Western Sahara smacked of Moroccan government propaganda. Moniquet, founder of the Brussels-based European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center, sued in the Moroccan judicial system, which is notoriously under the thumb of the palace, and was awarded a sum of more than $300,000 in libel damages. The largest libel award in Moroccan history, the disproportionate figure seemed designed to bankrupt the paper. Jamai lost an appeal and Moniquet, apparently not content with a mere symbolic court victory, insisted on receiving his damages.

A couple weeks ago, Moroccan court officials arrived at Le Journal and gave Jamai and the reporter who wrote the story Fahd al-Iraqi a week to come up with the cash. Jamai tells me that he doesn't have such funds. In any case, he says, he will also refuse on principle to pay an accompanying $11,000 government fine, even if it means that authorities move to impound his personal property. A Moroccan prince has offered to pay out of his own pocket, but Jamai refuses. He wants the regime to either back off its bully tactics once and for all or be exposed for thwarting a free press.

So far, the government is holding off from taking final action to enforce the court verdict. It may continue to hesitate, in fear of the international repercussions of shutting down an independent newspaper-- and of perhaps removing the furniture from a respected editor's home in lieu of payment of libel damages. But as Jamai told me in a phone call today, "There is a sword of Damocles hanging over our heads.” That may even be the regime's strategy now: keeping Le Journal perhaps in business but off balance, and intimidating others who may think about emulating Jamai's independent spirit.

--Scott MacLeod/Cairo