By Gavin Mackintosh And Emily Caulkett-
The Morocco government is to become the disgrace of the world after making up charges against a journalist for a facebook post for which she faces a three year jail sentence.
The Eye Of Media.Com is for the first time taking a stand with Amnesty International in condemning to dismiss Morocco’s ‘trumped up charges’ against journalist, Hanane Bakour, over a Facebook post she made.
Morocco’s kangaroo court is unacceptable, and casts a dark light against the country’s constitution, especially for a country that claims to be a Muslim nation. Its bullish practise of hampering freedom of speech relegates it to medi-evil times in many ways.
The Morrocan government exists within a framework of an official parliamentary constitutional monarchy, whereby the prime minister of Morocco is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government.
Bakour faces up to three years in prison and a fine after being accused of ‘publishing fake news by using electronic means that harm private life’. In the Facebook post, Bakour criticised the holding of a local election by the ruling party. The trial began on Monday, 10 April.
A jails sentence will be the embarrassment of the Morocco nation and entire journalistic profession and law. A jail sentence for critical speech or written letters as in Pakistan is a reminder of why British citizens must consider themselves one of the luckiest people in the world. No such pathetic dodgy laws exist in the Uk.
In any event the journalist is imprisoned, this publication will run a sustained campaign online and social media, pressurising the political elite in Morocco from top to bottom to clean up their act and deliver the rule of law to their people as expected of every democratic country.
Journalists from Morocco who wish to criticise its corrupt leadership should feel free to do so.
Besides, this publication will keep closer eyes on the Morocco government and freely run critical publications whenever it is fit to do so.
AI’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Heba Morayef, described the action of the government as shocking.
Morayef said, ‘It is shocking, heavy-handed and absurd that a journalist faces criminal charges over a Facebook post that was critical of Morocco’s main political party. Hanane Bakour has a right to her opinions, even if politicians object to them’. The charges, it is understood, stem from a complaint from the ruling party, the National Rally of Independents (RNI), in September 2021. Bakour had posted that the election of the new president of the party council in the region of Guelmim-Oued Noun, southern Morocco, was flawed because an RNI member had been critically wounded by a gunshot at his house.
In 2022 alone, Moroccan authorities, according to AI, investigated, prosecuted and imprisoned at least seven journalists and activists for criticising the government, as well as people who spoke online about religion or expressed solidarity with activists. Freedom House rated Morocco as ‘partly free’ in its 2023 Freedom in the World study of political rights and civil liberties, with the
Hanane Bakour(pictured) has been a journalist for 17 years and worked in several Moroccan outlets including Akhbar Al Youm, Al Massae and Al Jarida Al Oukhra. Until 2021, she was the editor-in-chief of the online website alyaoum24.com.
Limitations to the right to freedom of expression are provided in the Human Rights Act when other rights are unlawfully interfered with, and must be necessary and proportionate for the protection of a legitimate aim such as the protection of national security or of public order or of public health or morals. Imprisoning a journalist for alleged fake news is unjustifiable and smacks of utter tyranny.
In 2022 alone, Moroccan authorities investigated, prosecuted and imprisoned at least seven journalists and activists for criticizing the government, as well as people who spoke online about religion or expressed solidarity with activist.
The country’s attempt to prevent criticism against its government by falsely imprisoning journalists only spreads even further knowledge of its callous and evil practices.