Morocco
Over the past few years, Morocco has made strides
increasing Internet access for its citizens and scaling back online
censorship. The Feb20 movement—Morocco’s answer to the Arab
Spring—operated for the most part freely online. More recently,
Moroccans enraged by the King’s pardon of a convicted pedophile mounted an unprecedented online campaign—dubbed #DanielGate—ultimately resulted in rescinding the pardon.
But recent events in the country threaten that progress. On
September 17, Ali Anouzla—the co-founder and Arabic-language editor of a
popular online publication, Lakome—was arrested
after publishing an article that mentioned a YouTube video attributed
to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Titled “Morocco: Kingdom of
Corruption and Despotism,” the video was critical of Moroccan King
Mohammed VI. Reporters Without Borders
quoted the local public prosecutor as saying that Anouzla was arrested
“as a result of the dissemination of an AQIM video inciting others to
commit terrorism acts.” In fact, Anouzla’s article did not endorse the
video in anyway, and only linked to an article in Spanish paper El Pais
which contained a link to the original video. After being held for a
little over a week, Anouzla was charged
on September 25 with “material assistance” to a terrorist group,
“defending terrorism,” and “inciting the execution of terrorist acts.”
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