Attacks on the Press   |   Morocco  Attacks on the Press 2007:
Morocco   Press freedom continued its downward slide, belying
Morocco’s carefully burnished image as a liberalizing country
with a free press. Outspoken journalists found themselves in
court, in prison, or out of work following a rash of politicized
court cases, while the government of King Mohammed VI unveiled a
restrictive new press bill. On May 3, World Press Freedom Day,
CPJ designated Morocco as one of the world’s worst backsliders
on press freedom.  Media repression picked up where it left off
in December 2006, when then-Prime Minister Driss Jettou
suspended for two months the independent Arabic-language weekly
Nichane for running a 10-page cover story analyzing popular
jokes about religion, sex, and politics. In January, a Moroccan
court handed down a three-year suspended prison sentence to
Driss Ksikes, then director and editor of the magazine, and to
reporter Sanaa al-Aji for denigrating Islam, an offense under
Morocco’s press law of 2002