Le Journal Hebdomadaire receives mammoth fines - RIDICULOUS!!

[brim]

Le Journal Hebdomadaire receives mammoth fines

Index on Censorship
21 February 2006


Managing editor Abubakr Jamai and deputy editor Fahd Iraqi, of Le
Journal Hebdomadaire were fined three million and 50,000 dirhams (350,000
euros) for defamation on 16 February by a civil court in Rabat.

The fine, which is equal to 138 years of a minimum wage salary in
Morocco,is the highest ever given to journalists in the country. The newspaper
was sued by the Brussels-based European Strategic Intelligence and Security Centre (ESISC),
after Le Journal Hebdomadaire published an article questioning the
objectivity of a ESISC report on the Polisario
movement, which opposes Morocco's annexation of Western Sahara.
Lawyers for the two journalists said they would appeal.

---
Source:
http://www.indexonline.org/en/indexi...ives-mam.shtml

[brim]

Only in Morocco!!! I detest the makhzen and their ludicrous courts so so so so much!!

[-thetruth_]

i welcome the fine. I think it is good
Instead of facing the "catastrophic situation" in Tindouf camps, the Polisario separatists devote all their energy to organising festivities to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the creation of the SADR in the buffer zone, noted the Brussels-based European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center (ESISC) in a report published Monday.

[brim]

PRESS RELEASE





The ESISC Board of Directors has learned of the judgement handed down today by the Court of First Instance in Rabat, which found " LE JOURNAL HEBDOMADAIRE " guilty of defamation.



To recapitulate, in November 2005, the ESISC published a report entitled "The Polisario Front, a credible negotiations partner or after-effect of the Cold War and obstacle to a political solution for Western Sahara?".



In its December 3rd edition, "LE JOURNAL HEBDOMADAIRE" devoted 6 pages to criticising this work – which is its lawful right and is in no way disputed by the ESISC – and claimed that it had been "guided" by Rabat, insinuating that the Moroccan government had, in one way or another, financed the report. Both these allegations were untrue and defamatory. Moreover, at no point did the journalist who wrote the article think fit to contact the ESISC in order to obtain its version of the facts, which constitutes professional misconduct. Neither was there any response to telephone calls made by the ESISC in an attempt to find an acceptable compromise.



The ESISC therefore reluctantly decided to take the case to court.



The Rabat Court has fined Mr Boubker JAMAÏ, director of the weekly, and Mr Fahd IRAKI, journalist, 50,000 dirhams (4,500 Euros) each. " LE JOURNAL HEBDOMADAIRE" has been ordered to pay the ESISC 3,000,000 dirhams (270,000 Euros) in damages and to publish the judgement in two of its own editions, as well as arranging for it to be published in two other Moroccan newspapers at its own expense.



The ESISC Board of Directors is satisfied with this judgement, but would like to emphasize one last time that it was only a lack of professionalism on the part of the weekly's journalists and the insincerity of its management that brought it before the courts.



However, the ESISC Board of Directors has arrived at the following decision, which was announced today on the Pan-Arab television channel Al-Jazira by its lawyer, Mr Mohammed ZIANE, President of the Rabat Bar Association and a former Minister for Human Rights: "if the weekly admits to its mistakes and publishes an apology in its editorial on the one hand, while publishing the judgement and arranging to have it published in compliance with today's court order on the other, the ESISC will waive its rights to the damages it was awarded and accept a symbolic dirham in compensation.



Admitting to one's faults is a noble act and not a matter for shame and the only result the ESISC has been attempting to achieve all along, leaving aside the fruitless polemic, is a recognition of the wrong that was done to it and the responsibility of those who caused it.





Brussels, February 16th, 2006





esisc@esisc.org

www.esisc.org

[brim]

Admitting to one's faults is a noble act and not a matter for shame and the only result the ESISC has been attempting to achieve all along, leaving aside the fruitless polemic, is a recognition of the wrong that was done to it and the responsibility of those who caused it.

The hypocrisy of it all...