According to Reporters Without Borders, a verdict is due today in the Nichane trial.  Editor Driss Ksikes and journalist Sanae al-Aji face 3-5 years in prison as well as a lifetime ban on working in journalism for publishing popular Moroccan jokes told commonly on the streets.  These jokes are said to “defame Islam” and “insult the king.”

Over the past few weeks, local and international groups have condemned the trial and decision to ban the publication, calling it a violation of press freedom.  One such group drew up a petition, posted on what appears to be Nichane’s former website, carries the following statement:

We…strongly condemn the unlawful ban imposed on Nichane…and the legal proceedings started against the editor and a journalist working for the magazine…. We maintain that the ban is illegal and…reinforces the extra-judiciary repressive measures already in force. While we express our full and wholehearted solidarity with Nichane…we reiterate our plea for the amendment of liberticidal laws regarding freedom of the press and freedom of opinion and thought.

A group of Moroccan writers (including Ibrahim Khatib, Abdellatif Laabi and Abdelhak Serhane) have joined together in solidarity, issuing a joint statement denouncing the trial and resulting decisions.  “A society which doesn’t laugh at itself is a society condemned to all forms of bigotry and the creep of extremism,” they stated.

The International Press Institute has issued a letter to the European Parliament, noting their “deep concern” for the prosecution of Ksikes and Al-Aji.  A portion of the letter stated:

IPI views the action taken against Nichane and its editor and journalist as a severe violation of press freedom.  We strongly believe that the threat of imprisonment is never justified in retaliation for the dissemination of news and information or for expressions of opinion, no matter how unsettling or offensive they may seem to those involved.

The blogging world is also up in arms, as Global Voices Online reported (this here blog was even quoted).

Although the jokes are no longer available on Nichane’s website, several bloggers have translated them into French and English (Nichane published in derija, the lingua franca of Morocco).  For the jokes in English, direct your browser to eatbees blog and see for yourself if the Moroccan government is doing the right thing, or if the rest of the world is right.

Meanwhile, I’ll be at Google News, refreshing the page every minute or so.

Nichane editor Driss Ksikes and journalist Sanae Al-Aji were each handed a three year suspended sentence today for having published an article considered “defamation to Islam.”

In addition to the suspended sentence, the magazine was banned for two months and fined 80,000 Moroccan dirhams (about $9,320 USD).

Lawyer Taoufik Benyoub said that they would appeal the sentence.
The suspended sentence is long but the fine is light compared to past fines imposed upon journalists of both TelQuel and Le Journal Hebdomadaire. Ksikes and Al-Aji were also both at risk of being banned for life from working as journalists, however, no such ban was mentioned in the sentencing.

Personally, despite my anger at the Moroccan government in general over this matter, and my belief that they did nothing wrong, I’m relieved that neither will be facing a prison sentence, nor will either life be permanently ruined by the matter. If anything, the fame gained by both may allow them to work successfully abroad. My best wishes go out to both of them, and the entire staff of Nichane.

Driss Ksikes and Sanae al-Aji after hearing the verdict on Monday, January 15, 2007.

This afternoon, BBC News Africa reported that the 50 year old Moroccan press code shall soon be amended, so that journalists will not be able to receive prison sentences in the future (although fines and bans will most likely take some time to fade). This news comes shortly after the verdict that Driss Ksikes, editor, and Sanae Al-Aji, journalist, both of temporarily banned magazine Nichane, face only a three year suspended sentence and minor fines (which have been reported as being both 80,000dh each and 80,000dh combined; various sources are quoting different figures - either way, it’s not as bad as it could be and the magazine will surely help them).

Outside of the courtroom, reports BBC News, the journalists were defiant.

“I don’t regret what I wrote,” said Ksikes, “because these are jokes produced by society…but there are so many layers of readers in our society, and that’s why we apologized to those who felt offended.”

Aboubakr Jamai, editor of French-language Moroccan weekly Le Journal said, “I’m afraid we are going backwards despite the relative clemency of the sentence. We could have advanced the cause of freedom of expression in the first place if the government had not prosecuted Nichane. But they decided to go ahead with it and then felt obliged to sentence them.”

Last week I said that the government was catering to Islamists. Though I haven’t exactly changed my mind, I think the judge in this case did his best to be as lenient as possible. The journalists are expected to file an appeal, and I would love to see it come to fruition.

Sadly, it seems that most Moroccans who would support free speech are either too busy studying or too lazy to come out and protest. Although the vast majority of my teenage students have said they do fully support the concept, very few of them would be likely to state that publicly, or better yet, protest in the streets for it. Too hshuma.

And then there are the other Moroccans, as the BBC News story quoted:

“They have insulted our God, our prophet and our religion. They should be punished,” one woman was quoted as saying.

“There must be limits to freedom of expression. This is blasphemy,” said another.

Limits to freedom of expression? It still strikes me really odd that people actually believe that. I suppose the only thing to do is work on the next generation.

Meknes is not the cleanest of cities, not even for Morocco.  Compare it with your average European or American city, and you’d be really surprised - people here don’t hesitate to toss candy wrappers or even beer cans onto the sidewalk, and on Sunday mornings my sidewalk in particular is littered with pools of vomit from the previous night’s debauchery.

When the King comes to visit Meknes, however, everything changes.

Now, this is no criticism of the king - not only would I prefer not to follow in the footsteps of the Nichane victims, but I know that it isn’t his fault.  No, it is the fault of the lazy PJD-run Meknes government which spends all year lazing around in cafes or harassing youths who pee in public parks.  They don’t pick up trash all year, nor do they clean the streets or paint the local buildings, until it comes time for the king’s visit.

The last few nights, I’ve been lulled out of a deep sleep by the most bizarre noise coming from my front windows.  Looking closer, I discovered that - lo and behold! - the culprit is a street cleaning machine.  Someone is actually driving up my busy street, repeatedly, night after night, operating a machine which vacuums the street!  They started three or four days ago, and each day (of course), people have continued their usual habits of tossing cigarette butts, empty lighters, beer cans, soda bottles, candy wrappers, used condoms, oil cans, and whatever else happens to be lying around in their cars onto the street, causing more trouble for the street vacuumer and giving him reason to repeat his obnoxiously loud actions nightly.

Better yet, they have not only vacuumed the street, but have also repainted the white dashed lines (albeit leaving the old ones, meters apart, which will inevitably result in confusion to already poorly skilled drivers) and the center, and trimmed the trees.

Avenue des FAR, in all its vacuumed glory:

BY FADOUA BENAICH AND JESSE SAGE
January 12, 2007

THE ONLY REAL DANGER to a political joke in the United States is missing your mark. Just ask John Kerry.

Although Americans can make light of their leaders, their enemies and even the Iraq war, a fundamental challenge to freedom of expression is happening just off our radar screen in Morocco. There, two of the country’s leading journalists face five-year prison sentences, crippling fines and/or being banned from publication, all for an article about political humor.

Driss Ksikes is the editor of Nichane, a weekly magazine published in Morocco’s local drija Arabic dialect. The magazine’s name means “direct,” and it launched in September with a goal of bringing a fresh perspective to a country still emerging from decades of brutal civil rights repression under King Hassan II, who died in 1999.

In a special edition of Nichane in early December, Ksikes published an insightful cover story by up-and-coming writer Sanae Al Aji on humor in Morocco. The piece, entitled, “How Moroccans Laugh at Religion, Sex and Politics,” cataloged popular Moroccan jokes and invited social critics to analyze the punch lines. As humor typically touches on social taboos, the article discussed jokes mocking the king, Islamist imams and attitudes toward women.

This is an election year in Morocco, and both the monarchy and the opposition Islamist parties seized on the opportunity to make an example of Nichane. Islamist websites branded the magazine worse than any Danish publication and the editors got death threats. Prime Minister Driss Jettou issued an injunction banning Nichane from newsstands and shutting down its website. Declaring the magazine a threat to the “fundamental values of Moroccan society,” prosecutors have now put Ksikes and Al Aji on trial in a Casablanca court for “damaging the Islamic religion, lacking proper respect for the king and publishing of writings contrary to public morals.” A verdict is expected today.

Morocco had been a symbol of hope for reform in the Middle East in recent years. His father stifled public discourse and tortured opponents for decades, but King Muhammad VI has enhanced civil liberties, particularly for women. That Al Aji has become the first female reporter to face prison time in Morocco is a perverse sign of progress in gender equality.

Still, the door opened to a more vibrant public discourse. In 2005, Nichane’s parent publication — the French weekly TelQuel, aimed at the country’s francophone elite — ran a cover expose on the king’s salary. Other TelQuel issues explored homosexuality and drug use in Morocco. The country got its first journalism school, and many of its top graduates work for Nichane. Now that staff is waiting to hear the verdict, and learn the fate of the magazine.

The banning of Nichane and the sentence hanging over Ksikes and Al Aji painfully illustrate the fragility of newfound freedoms. Across North Africa and the Middle East, dictators and Islamist political forces have been emboldened. The movement toward greater freedom that seemed unstoppable a few years ago is now being smothered.

Americans should see the fate of Nichane as a warning. The magazine offered a model of investigative journalism and open inquiry for the rest of the region. After all, the reporters did not invent the jokes in the “offending” article, but rather dissected popular humor to examine Moroccan society. This is the kind of critical journalism — probing, relevant and with popular appeal — needed in the Arab and Muslim world.

The Moroccan government must know that the world is watching. Freedom of expression and freedom of the press are not liberties to be revoked at will. They are fundamental building blocks of a free society. Although Nichane’s cover story used jokes as a bellwether of Moroccan society, the prosecution of the magazine’s staff is a sad joke about where social reform in the Middle East may be headed.

FADOUA BENAICH is a Moroccan journalist based in Washington, D.C. JESSE SAGE directs the HAMSA project of the American Islamic Congress.

I was discussing the execution of Saddam Hussein with a group of Moroccan students the other day.  Personally, I feel as though the repercussions of choosing Eid al-Adha as the day of Saddam’s execution are twofold: 1) It will spark further sectarian violence and 2) It will allow the decision to be pinned more easily on the United States.  I also feel as though it was wrong to execute someone on a day during which “no blood should be shed.”

One student raised her hand and said, “I just see it as the first sacrifice of the day.”

And they say free speech is dead in Morocco…

Elmer Symons, a South African who had spent the past three years following his dream of racing in United States, was killed Tuesday between Errachidia and Ouarzazate on the fourth day of the Dakar Rally in Morocco.

Symons, 29, had been taking part in the Dakar Rally for the first time, and was currently in 18th place overall.

The rally has claimed 49 lives in its 29 years of existence, of which 24 were rally competitors.

Photo from westernresistance.com

In September of 2006, French teacher and writer Robert Redeker, stirred up controversy with a piece entitled, “Face aux intimidations islamistes, que doit faire le monde libre?” or “What should the free world do in the face of Islamist intimidation?”  The article was published in right-wing French magazine Le Figaro.

Upon publication, however, Le Figaro was immediately banned in Tunisia and Egypt.   A Tunisian paper stated that the cause of the ban was that Redeker’s article contained “harmful content offensive to the Prophet, Islam, and Muslims.”

Reporters Without Borders agreed that the article was aggressive, however, stated that “Without taking a position on the content of the op-ed piece, which was very aggressive towards Muslims, we point out that it is up to Tunisian readers to form their own opinion and not for the Tunisian authorities to filter information.”

Indeed.

After the publication of the piece, Redeker was subject to death threats, not supported by his own people, and forced to go into hiding.

Two days ago, a young Moroccan man was arrested for making death threats toward Redeker.  He is only 20 years old, according to several international press sources.

I am choosing not to republish Redeker’s article.  Unfortunately, such fear is the reality when faced with the Muslim thought police.

Instead, a link to Redeker’s article, translated into English, is here.

This story has been widely covered by the Moroccan press, as well as the international press, and of course, hordes of bloggers.  Nichane Editor Driss Ksikes and journalist Sanaa al-Aji face up to five years in prison for printing jokes in an article titled “How Moroccans Laugh at Religion, Sex, and Politics.”  Jokes were not original, rather, the article was aimed at analyzing which popular jokes Moroccans find funny.

“All I did was report to readers what Moroccans are seeing in jokes and anedoctes,” said Sanaa Al-Aji, on trial in Casablanca.  She also stated that she has a deep respect for religion.

Although Morocco has a strong history of blocking free speech and press, both have seen significant new freedoms since King Mohammed VI ascended the throne in 1999.  The banning of Nichane was the first of its kind in 2006, although in the previous year several magazines and journalists were fined.

Nichane was a relatively new magazine, having started printing in September 2006, and was popular, particularly with young people, who respected the fact that it published in derija, or Moroccan Arabic, which is not technically a written dialect.

In this case, Reporters Without Borders have taken up the cause, saying that it threatens media freedom in Morocco.  It seems that the Moroccan government is hell-bent on catering to Islamists, rather than continuing its short run of open discourse.

A petition has been started up on Nichane’s website, in support of Ksikes and Al-Aji.

Links

Reporters Without Borders press release 

Eatbees blog - excellent coverage in a story entitled “A Black Eye For Freedom”

Reuters 

Magharebia (The News and Views of the Maghreb) article 

(Getty Images) The offending Nichane cover (21 Dec 2006)