Moroccan journalists fined over Islam joke

A MOROCCAN court has ordered three-year suspended jail terms and fines on two journalists for defaming Islam and breaching public morality in jokes published in a magazine.

The Casablanca court yesterday also fined Nichane magazine’s managing editor Driss Ksikes and journalist Sanaa al-Aji 80,000 dirhams (€7,200) for “defamation against Islam and the monarchy”.

The case has been closely followed throughout the kingdom and abroad as a test of freedom of speech in Morocco.

The court banned Nichane from publishing for two months, but the judges rejected the prosecution’s demand for jail terms for the journalists.

The jokes featured the prophet Mohammed, the late Moroccan king Hassan II, Islamists and Moroccans in an article entitled How Moroccans laugh at religion, sex and politics.

Mr Ksikes said he and Mr al-Aji, who wrote the article, will appeal against the verdict, as did their magazine’s attorney, Chawki Benyoub.

The prosecutor had wanted prison terms of between three and five years, fines of 100,000 dirhams and the closure of Nichane. The demands had outraged human rights and journalists’ organisations.