Morocco

Over the second half of the 20th century, Morocco has evolved into one of the world's leading emigration countries. Moroccans form one of the largest and most dispersed non-Western migrant communities in Western Europe. Although Moroccan policymakers and the media stress the temporary, transitory character of sub-Saharan migration, an increasing proportion of these officially "temporary" migrants might become permanent settlers. These African migrants to Morocco face substantial xenophobia an...read more

A leading Islamist activist in Morocco says she is eagerly awaiting her trial on charges of insulting King Mohammed VI. Nadia Yassine, of the outlawed but widely-popular Justice and Charity Group, could face up to five years in jail if convicted. She was put on trial earlier this year for saying that she would prefer a republican system to Morocco's hereditary monarchy.

While satellite television often attracts the lion's share of analysis about new media and their effect on prospects for democratization in the Middle East and North Africa, another technology may already have had at least as large an impact: the Internet. In Morocco, where the regime has severely constrained, controlled or silenced independent print media through direct and indirect censorship, the Internet has become an important instrument for unrestricted flows of information, which in tu...read more

"The World Press Freedom Committee last wrote on February 2, 2004 to express its warm appreciation of Your Majesty's compassion in pardoning journalist Ali Lmrabet, the director of the French-language Demain and its Arabic sister publication, Douman, after he had been sentenced to four years' imprisonment by a Moroccan court for news reports he had published. The WPFC now writes again to express its pleasure at reports that Your Majesty has instituted a far-ranging review of restrictive laws ...read more

With trials of Sahrawi demonstrators beginning this week in Laayoune, Amnesty International has called on the Moroccan government to ensure that all reports of torture and ill-treatment of detainees held in connection with recent disturbances in Western Sahara are fully and impartially investigated and that all those charged are guaranteed fair trials. Amnesty International said it was greatly disturbed by reports of torture and excessive use of force by Moroccan security personnel when dispe...read more

Pages