Nichane, TelQuel and Le Journal Hebdomadaire are the three Moroccan weeklies. Nichane is the only Arabic written weekly that targets the Arabophone population. As one of the few they try to address all the topics in the Moroccan society and dare to be critical about it.

There has been a lot of commotion about Nichane. After just two editions Prime Minister Driss Jetton has placed a ban on Nichane. They published jokes on religion, sex and politics, which according to Driss led to a national ‘crisis’. Closing down Nichane was the only way to calm down Morocco.

On the 15th of January the Moroccan court announced their decision. Nichane’s editor in chief Driss Ksiker and journalist Sana El Aji received three years probation and were fined 80.000 dhr (8.000 Euro) each. In addition Nichane was banned from print for two months. The president of TelQuel and Nichane, Ahmed R. Benckems, responded flabbergasted. “The TelQuel and the Nichane strive to show the real Morocco. The jokes in Nichane are the jokes of the public! We respect the decision of the judge, but we will continue”. (TelQuel) The ban to print has ended and they are back.

Nichane is not on its own. The Moroccan press have a certain amount of freedom but there are topics that are off limits: the royal family, the monarch, the Islam and the contested area of the Western Sahara. Ali Lmrabet was the owner of the weeklies Domain and Doumane. He publicly criticized the king and the royal family in 2003 which led to the closure of the weeklies and a jail sentence of 3 years. After 7 months he was released ahead of time by king’s pardon. At present Lmbaret has a ten year publication ban after criticizing the Moroccan policy regarding the Western Sahara and publishing an article on the refugee camp for the Sawahari in Tindoef Algeria.

Aboubakr Jamai director of the weekly Le Journal Hebdomadaire expresses his antipathy in his weekly: “Thanks to the judge in the case of Nichane and Lmbaret we know today that the price that we pay for criticizing the monarch is 3 years prison, criticizing Morocco regarding the Western Sahara is a ban to publish for 10 years, and the price for criticizing the Islam is just 3 years prohibition.

Ali Lmbaret, Ahmed R. Benchemsi and Aboubakr Jamai all come from the establishment in Morocco. They turned to journalism because of their discontent with the way things are run within the Moroccan society. Mohammed, an old political insider explains: “They are not average journalists, they know very well where the real boundaries lie and they don’t cross them. Benchemsi knew that with his statement he was treading on a slippery slope. Still, depriving someone of their work is one of the worst things you can do, and censoring the press is insulting to the Moroccan people.”

Today Nichane is back, but for how long? Benchemsi will keep testing the boundaries of press  freedom in his quest to portray the true Morocco. After the ruling on the 15th of January in the case Nichane, the Moroccan press has been compromised again. Jamai has been tried for the comments he made in Le Journal Hebdomadaire. He has put down his presidency of Le Journal Hebdomadaire in order to prevent the closure of the weekly.

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