Moroccan human rights council sues newspaper

17/06/2008

Morocco's Consultative Council on Human Rights (CCDH) took Al Jarida Al Oula to court to prevent the new daily from publishing a series of statements made to the Equity and Reconciliation Commission.

By Naoufel Cherkaoui for Magharebia in Rabat – 17/06/08

[ccdh.org.ma] Morocco's Consultative Council on Human Rights (CCDH) is suing Al Jarida Al Oula in an attempt to block the new daily from publishing a series of statements on human rights.

Morocco's CCDH has brought suit against Al Jarida Al Oula in an effort to prevent the newly-formed daily from publishing a series of public domain documents. The documents include statements by citizens and officials to the Equity and Reconciliation Commission during the latter's examination of human rights abuses between 1956 and 1999.

CCDH President Ahmed Herzenni said that access to the documents "must be subject to strict conditions and controls; otherwise they would be exposed to manipulation".

Herzenni acknowledged that "the documents in question are actually in the public domain", but said that while an Archives Act has been adopted to create a national system to preserve historical documents, no enforcement measures are yet in place.

"This leads to a condition whereby the CCDH ... would be the only entity entrusted with the archives until the decrees enforcing the Archives Act have been issued," he concluded, explaining his organisation's decision to prevent testimony in the documents from being published in Al Jarida Al Oula.

The newspaper's editor, Ali Anouzla, said Herzenni's justifications carried a number of contradictions.

"Herzenni considers the documents to be in the public domain... intended to be a rich source of materials for researchers, but at the same time, he wants to conceal them from the public."

Anouzla denied an assertion by Herzenni that the CCDH had contacted the newspaper before taking the case to court. He said that Herzenni's statements would not prevent his newspaper from publishing what he called "a publicly owned source of information".

"The newspaper has the right to publish these testimonies because most of the victims' testimonies were aired on state television and radio," said journalist Said Rihani of the independent daily Annahar. "Why then should the CCDH object to the newspaper's publishing of statements made by officials, especially in the absence of a legal provision banning that," he asked.

Ahmed, a student, told Magharebia, "We have the right to access these documents; there is nothing wrong about it, since the aim of the Equity Commission was to know the truth about what had happened. We, for our part, want to know the truth in full."

Khadija Ryadi, President of the Moroccan Association of Human Rights, said: "The legal action filed against Al Jarida Al Oula is just a new attempt in this long episode to crack down on the press and the citizen's right to receive news. They can't cite the Archives Act now that there are no decrees for enforcing it."

Arab Committee for Human Rights (ACHR) member Abdelsalam Al Andalusi told Magharebia that publishing the statements "is a normal thing and is a part of the press mission, assuming that the newspaper didn't steal those files".

Abbass, a coffee shop waiter, offered a different opinion. "Newspapers don't respect privacy and secrets," he said. "We are going through a new stage, and we have to forget everything about the past and to turn a new page on that past era."

Al Jarida Al-Oula is a new independent daily which began publication in May.

The Equity and Reconciliation Commission was established by royal decree in 2003 to conduct an assessment of the human rights abuses committed between 1956 and 1999. Its mandate came to an end upon presentation of its final report in 2005.