RABAT – For the second time in less than a year, the Moroccan authorities have initiated legal action against the Press. This time it is against a journalist who wrote about the life of princesses in the Moroccan Royal Palace.
A report by the official Moroccan News Agency (MNA) said the General Prosecutor of the Casablanca Primary Court had summoned the officials of the independent Arabic Al Ayyam newspaper for interrogation over an article published by the weekly newspaper on the life of princesses in the royal palace. The report was titled The secrets of the women of the palace under three kings’.
The MNA said the Attorney-General’s Office had ordered the prosecutor to institute 'a comprehensive, thorough and accurate investigation' into what had been published in the weekly. The Attorney-General’s Office said the report constituted "a stark violation of the law and could be regarded as criminal according to the Press law and criminal code."
An official from the Ministry of Protocol and Royal Palace had earlier sent a strong worded letter to another Arabic weekly, Al Jareedat al Ukhra, on a report the latter had published on the life of Princess Lala Salma, wife of King Mohammed VI of Morocco.
The report published by Al Ayyam’ in its issue No. 204 on November 6, 2005 highlighted the life of princesses in the royal palace during the reigns of King Mohammed V, King Hassan II and King Mohammed VI.
The MNA said Nourudeen Miftah, the weekly’s publishing director, Mariam Makrim, writer of the report, the officer in charge of printing and the one in charge of distributing the weekly would all be investigated in accordance with the Press law.
