Media lashes back at ban of king survey

Rabat: Last month, 20 Moroccan newspapers printed blank editorial pages in protest after authorities seized and destroyed a news weekly that dared to ask Moroccans what they thought of their king.

Moroccan bloggers have been up in arms over the latest attack on freedom of expression.

They've been quick to find and share the results of the banned poll online, and have adopted the slogan "I'm one of the nine per cent" - referring to Moroccans who are not fans of the king.

Forty-nine per cent of the 1,108 respondents describe the monarchy, which dominates political decisionmaking, as "democratic."

And 69 per cent find that the king's many financial holdings are good for the country's economy.

The unprecedented poll, conducted by the magazine TelQuel and the French daily Le Monde, coincided with the 10-year anniversary of King Mohammad VI's ascension to power.

Printed in an issue titled 'The people judge their king', the survey found that 91 per cent of Moroccans hold a favourable view of the monarch.

But the issue was never allowed to hit the stands. Over last weekend, 100,000 copies of TelQuel and its sister Arabic-language publication Nichane were seized and destroyed by the Interior Ministry. On Monday, the issue of Le Monde that carried the poll results was also banned.

"I was ready to publish the results, whatever they were," TelQuel's editor, Ahmad BenChemsi, said. "If the result were bad [for the king], it would have been risky to do it, because Morocco isn't exactly democratic. But the results weren't bad. I published them without any feeling of risk. When the magazine was seized, I was really shocked."

Local and international human rights groups condemned the confiscation of the magazine, but the Moroccan courts upheld the decision.

The ministry's actions - the latest in a series of clashes between the monarchy and the press here - were based on the Moroccan press code, which criminalises "any offence towards His Majesty the King" and allows the seizure of publications "that threaten public order."

A burgeoning independent press paid a price for their daring. According to Reporters Without Borders, Moroccan journalists have been condemned to a total of 25 years in prison and fined a total of almost $2.9 million under the king.

King Mohammad VI took the throne in 1999 amid expectations of greater freedom and openness. The public's reservations centre on Morocco's still endemic poverty and on the issue of women's rights.

In the poll conducted by the magazine, 37 per cent of Moroccans find that poverty in Morocco has lessened, while an equal number thinks it has remained the same, and 24 per cent believes it has worsened.

Meanwhile, 49 per cent find that with the 2004 reform of family law (which gave women equal rights in matters of divorce and custody) the king "has gone too far."

In the eyes of the Moroccan authorities, apparently, any survey that discusses the king - regardless of its results - is an attack on his legitimacy.

The minister of communication stated that the monarchy "can't be the object of debate, even through a poll."