Authorities block Ali Lmrabet's attempts to launch a new magazine

Reporters Without Borders today condemned bureaucratic harassment of journalist Ali Lmrabet and the blocking of his attempts to launch a weekly to replace Demain Magazine, which has been banned in Morocco since May 2003. "There seems to be no limit to how far the Moroccan authorities will go to thwart Ali Lmrabet, but it is vital that the laws are respected and the authorities have no right to prevent the publication of a new newspaper without giving a valid reason," the press freedom organisation said. Lmrabet went to the newspapers department at the Rabat lower court building on 12 January to present an application to publish a new satirical, French-language weekly which, as he had already announced in the press, he intended to call Après-Demain. It came as no surprise when he was told that name was already taken, so he filed an application for a magazine to be called Demain Libéré. The officials tried to find fault with the application but it was in good order, so the deputy prosecutor told him to return the next day. As he left, he was refused a receipt acknowledging his application and the next day when he tried to go to the prosecutor's office, a policeman called him by name and told him he could not go in, explaining that he was just following instructions. But the law is clear. Article 6 of the press and publication code says that, when an application to publish a newspaper is filed, the authorities must "immediately give (a) stamped and dated provisional receipt. The definitive receipt must be issued within a maximum of 30 days, failing which the newspaper can be published." Justice ministry press attaché Khalid Mokhtari told Reporters Without Borders that Lmrabet's file needed some clarification. Lmrabet said: "I am fully aware that, in order for me to be able to publish a newspaper in Morocco, justice minister Mohammed Bouzoubaâ must first check with King Mohammed VI or one of his advisers, because my case is managed directly from the palace." In May 2003, when he was the editor of Demain Magazine and Douman, Lmrabet was sentenced by a Rabat court to four years in prison for "insulting the person of the king," attacking Morocco's "territorial integrity" and "attacking the monarchy." This was reduced on a appeal to three years in prison the following month. Lmrabet was awarded the Reporters Without Borders - Fondation de France Prize on 10 December 2003. He and other imprisoned journalists received a royal pardon on 7 January 2004.