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Moroccan paper
fined over gay party report error
26 Mar 2008-
Rabat, Morocco - A Moroccan court fined the country's leading newspaper
a record 6.0 million dirhams on Tuesday, after it mistakenly alleged a
judge had attended a gay wedding party in the Muslim country.
The editor said
the paper would appeal the verdict and expressed concern that the
authorities were using the courts to try and shut down a troublesome
critic.
Last November,
Al Massae was the first Moroccan newspaper to publish a report about a
party held following an illegal gay wedding in the northern town of Ksar
el Kebir.
It quoted a
police source saying that an unnamed judge in the town attended the
party, a sensitive issue in Morocco's mostly conservative society.
Homosexual acts
are banned by law and Islamists condemned the gay party as an attack on
public morals in Morocco, where court verdicts are pronounced in the
name of the king, whose titles include that of "commander of the
faithful".
Al Massae
apologised for suggesting a judge was present at the gay party, after
its police source informed the paper that the judge had been confused
with a person with the same name.
The paper did
not name the judge in its report and all four Ksar el Kebir judges sued
the newspaper for defamation. A Rabat court on Tuesday ordered al Massae
to pay them 1.5 million dirhams each.
Critics say al
Massae, Morocco's most widely-read newspaper, has chased after readers
with a populist tone that has come at the expense of accuracy and good
sourcing.
But the paper's
editor Tawfik Bouechrine said al Massae was in fact being punished for
its aggressive reporting on corruption and human rights abuses.
"This is the
first time since Morocco's independence 52 years ago that a court has
sentenced a newspaper to such a hefty fine," said Bouechrine told
reporters.
"The government
is hiding behind the court to close the newspaper. It is sending a
message to the media that it will not tolerate press freedom," he said.
Rights
activists have repeatedly accused the government of using the judiciary
to stifle media freedom by jailing journalists or heavily fining
newspapers, charges the government denies.
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