26/03/2008
One of Morocco's top newspapers received a record libel fine from a Rabat court on Tuesday (March 15th) for incorrectly reporting that an unnamed judge in the northern town of Ksar el Kebir attended a gay wedding party last November. International press reports say Al-Massae Editor-in-Chief Rachid Ninni must pay 1.5m dirhams to each of the town's four judges in addition to 120,000 dirhams as a fine to the state. AFP quoted Moroccan Journalists' Union President Younes M'jahed as saying that such a verdict is a "death sentence for the newspaper" because the amount is "unreal". Reuters quoted the newspaper's editor Tawfik Bouechrine as suggesting that such a heavy fine is in fact a punishment for the paper's aggressive reporting on corruption and human rights abuses.