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.