Ali Lmrabet

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ali Lmrabet (2006)

Ali Lmrabet ( Arabic علي المرابط, DMG ʿAlī al-Murābiṭ ; * December 30, 1959 in Tétouan , northern Morocco) is a Moroccan diplomat, journalist and author who is known for his struggle for press freedom in Morocco. His uncompromising attitude led to severe reprisals by the Moroccan regime, including a long-term writing ban.

youth

He is the oldest of twelve siblings in a family from the Rif . His birthplace, Tetuan, still enjoys strong Spanish influence, and so he learned both Spanish, French and Arabic. Like other Rif residents of his generation under Franco, his father had served in the Spanish civil war (northern Morocco was under the Spanish protectorate at the time), which aroused the adolescent's interest in Spanish-Moroccan relations during the protectorate period, which ultimately became the subject of his as yet unfinished doctoral thesis .

He went to a school of the Alliance Israélite Universelle , which had a network of schools for young Jews in Morocco , but also subsidized the schooling of Muslim children from the lower classes of the population. He completed secondary school in Meknes and Rabat , before finally studying literature and business administration at the Sorbonne in Paris . Here he also received teaching assignments.

From diplomat to journalist

Before his journalistic career he worked in the diplomatic service. In the 1990s he was the second man at the Moroccan embassy in Buenos Aires for two years ; after reporting the ambassador's corrupt practices, he was transferred to a meaningless post in Rabat. On this occasion, a journalist friend of the French-language newspaper Le Quotidien du Maroc suggested that he take up a small daily column; in this way began his work as a journalist. In 1997 he began working for the weekly La Vie économique , a pioneering paper that paid attention to a certain critical independence that was previously unknown in the country. This was done under the sign of the approach of a political opening that went hand in hand with the coming to terms with the "years of leaden time" ("années de plomb"). He switched to Le Journal Hebdomadaire , which was even more connected to this idea and led the fight for more freedom of expression in the Alaouite kingdom. Lmrabet's best-known articles included his interview with Benjamin Netanyahu , the first interview with an Israeli politician in a Maghreb country. Likewise the interview with Malika Oufkir , the daughter of General Mohammed Oufkir , who had disappeared with the rest of her family in secret prisons for around twenty years - King Hassan's revenge for her father's involvement in Operation Burâq (attempted coup in 1971), or other articles about the years of leaden time and the subject of Western Sahara . Until then, none of these questions could be discussed. In 1999 he quit his job when the newspaper rejected one of his articles in which he expressed the new monarch Muhammad VI's will to reform . questioned. This article then appeared in Courrier international .

On March 11, 2000, he founded a new paper, Demain (“Tomorrow”), with a format that was new to Morocco in terms of both form and content and which primarily dealt with political issues. In the editorial of the first issue, he formulated the goals as follows:

“Inform without self-censorship, carry out analyzes without inquisitorial procedures, introduce innovations with verve, always stay at the spearhead and promote transparency in this epoch of change. [...] Because, in our opinion, the time has come to an end in which for certain motives - whether they be understandable or not - the freedom of information is equated with the infiltration and attack on the security of the state. "

On December 2 of the same year, the magazine was closed under the government of the socialist Abd ar-Rahmân Yûsufî . He was charged with publishing things that had already been published elsewhere, namely statements by a political veteran that the USFP's party, the USFP, was implicated in the 1971 Skhirat massacre (attempted coup). The government took the opportunity to shut down an uncomfortable magazine, along with Le Journal and its Arabic version as-Sahîfa . In its brief existence, Demain survived thanks to the economic help of its readers, while the number of advertisements steadily declined due to concerns about the critical tone of the magazine.

On January 20, 2001, Demain Magazine was a cheaper weekly paper in black and white and shorter articles, the first satirical paper in the country in French. Demain Magazine lived on sales without the advertising business; Thanks to the caricaturing of the personalities of the country's political class, he was granted a great success, which, however, did not please those affected and led to increased anger with censorship and the courts. In autumn 2002 a sister paper was published in Arabic, Dûmân ( Doumane in French transcription, an Arabicization of the French word demain ). This was technically of better quality than Demain Magazine and reached a wider audience. However, this also led to more enemies and higher political pressure. On May 21, 2003, Ali Lmrabet was sentenced to four years in prison, shortly after which the sentence was reduced to three years. The trial was brought against him on the basis of the articles in which he informed about the intentions of the king, the royal palace in Skhirât (south of Rabat ) - and that was considered an insult to majesty - as well as the cartoons in Dûmân . He then went on hunger strike until an international campaign to free him was launched. Thanks to a pardon from the king, he was released in January 2004.

Advancement of journalism in Morocco

The bottom line is that Lmrabet has done pioneering journalistic work in that he has consistently crossed the red lines that have restricted the limited scope of press freedom in Morocco for decades, scrutinizing political life in its various aspects and above ordinary censorship and thus the self-censorship issues concerned wrote, saying of the political corruption, about the poverty situation in the Rif, under Hassan II. are in retaliation for autonomy left was left that the situation of the Moroccan soldiers in the imprisonment of the Polisario like were and cannot return to Morocco (Morocco refuses to recognize the fact of such imprisonment at all); In this context, he was the first Moroccan journalist to conduct an interview with the President of the Sahrawi Republic ( DARS ), Mohamed Abdelaziz ( Arabic محمد عبد العزيز). The interview was published in April 2000 in the Hebdomadaire journal and resulted in the newspaper and its Arabic-language sister paper being banned, which, however, did not publish the article. The ban was only lifted after an international outcry in early 2001, when Chancellor Schröder brought the matter up during a visit by the Moroccan Prime Minister Youssoufi . The reason for the ban was the alleged violation of Moroccan territorial integrity by the interview. Lmrabet also reported on cases of torture and disappearance without a trace or illegal emigration: during his research, Lmrabet crossed the Strait of Gibraltar together with other refugees on a patera (better nutshell). The detailed article appeared in El País .

Reaction of the regime

Lmrabet lived for many years in both Morocco and Spain ; In Morocco he was sentenced to ten years of writing bans on April 12, 2005 because he had told the weekly newspaper al-Mustaqill ('The Independent') in January 2005 that the Sahrawis from Tindouf were - contrary to what the Moroccan propaganda wants to admit - not held there against their will by the Polisario , but refugees. Lmrabet was also fined 50,000 dirhams , or around € 5,000. Despite this writing ban - which only applied to Morocco - from 2004 to 2008 he worked for the Spanish newspaper El Mundo as a specialist in Maghrebian affairs. When a drunk was harassed at night, the police did not intervene in the summer of 2012 - it was Ramadan at the time - despite repeated requests, but apparently refused to protect him. The next day, three police officers took away his ID card. Lmrabete made an announcement to this effect but did not even receive a copy of the advertisement. In mid-September 2012 there was real bullying by the police and secret service who were filming him and his house.

Hunger strike 2015

Since the end of June 2015, the journalist has been on a hunger strike in front of the Palace of Nations in Geneva to force the Moroccan government to issue him a registration certificate for his home town of Tetuan, which in turn is a prerequisite for the issuance of an identity card ( Carte d'identité nationale, CIN ) and passport is. The CIN, in turn, is required to register a business. The regime’s endeavors to subject him to an occupational ban is once again evident: the writing ban expired in mid-April 2015. Interestingly, the local registration office had already given him this registration certificate, but then asked Lmrabet on instructions from a higher authority to return it to the police. Lmrabet did this, too, but not without having copies notarized, which were then put online on Demain Online . On July 22, 2015, several non-governmental organizations, including Reporters Without Borders, wrote to the Moroccan king asking him to have the papers required for Lmrabet's professional activity issued. It is not the first time that the Moroccan regime has taken administrative procedures against unpleasant media: Le Journal Hebdomadaire from Casablanca had to close on January 25, 2010 because it had been driven into bankruptcy by debt. According to one of the paper's founders, the regime had already put pressure on those customers in 2002 to place advertisements.

On 28 July 2015, Lmrabet broke off the hunger strike when Moroccan Interior Minister M. Hassad said that Lmrabet could collect his passport at his family's home in Barcelona and return to Morocco; After staying there for three months, he will be issued with a corresponding residence permit. Since this is a prerequisite for the issuance of a CIN, the journalist will only be able to identify himself to the authorities via his passport. This prevents the journalist from practicing his profession in Morocco for another three months.

On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day 2014, Ali Lmrabet was named by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) as one of the "hundred heroes of information" worldwide, who in an exemplary manner with their struggle and their work to promote freedom according to Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights contribute, namely "to research, receive and disseminate information without restriction through borders, and that with any medium."

Awards

  • Premio al Martirio Humorístico. Academia del Humor (2003)
  • Premio Columnistas de El Mundo (2003)
  • Prix ​​RSF-Fondation de France (París, 2003)
  • XVII Premi Solidarity. Institut de Drets Humans de Catalunya (Barcelona, ​​2003)
  • Premio Libertad de Expresión de La Revista del Occidente (Asturias, 2003)
  • Premio Protagonistas en la categoría de Periodismo (Barcelona, ​​2003)
  • Micrófono de oro de la Federación de Asociaciones de Radio y Televisión (Ponferrada, 2004)
  • Premio Agustín Merello de la Comunicación (Cádiz, 2004)
  • Premio Periodismo de Los Mejores del año. Cambio 16 (Madrid, 2004)
  • Premio Raúl Rivero (Madrid, 2004)
  • Premio Constantino Ruiz Carnero a la Libertad de Expresión (Granada, 2004)
  • Prix ​​de l'Invité d'honneur. Festival du dessin de presse et d'humour (Tourcoing, 2004)
  • Premi Llibertat d'Expressió de la Unión de Periodistes Valencians (Valencia, 2004)
  • Premio José Couso a la Libertad de Prensa, awarded by the Colegio de Periodistas de Galicia (2005)
  • Prix ​​Mohamed Benchicou de la plume libre (Argel, 2006)

Weblinks and further information

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ubuesque: Le ministère de l'intérieur répond à Ali Lmrabet ( memento of July 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) accessed July 25, 2015
  2. ↑ http://www.yabiladi.com/forum/pensez-vous-lamrabet-2-382322.html tap July 25, 2015
  3. ↑ http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2005/04/12/comunicacion/1113304912.html The finances of the royal family belong to the Moroccan taboo subjects. Picked up July 25, 2015
  4. ↑ http://www.udel.edu/leipzig/270500/ela021000.htm Accessed July 26, 2015
  5. ↑ http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2005/04/12/comunicacion/1113304912.html Here also information on the lawsuit filed against Lmrabet. Picked up July 25, 2015
  6. ↑ Ramadan, l'ivrogne, le chat et moi ( Memento from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), accessed July 25, 2015
  7. ↑ http://www.tolerance.ca/Article.aspx?ID=141798&L=fr
  8. ↑ http://www.actu-maroc.com/flash-news-trente-en-un-q14-aout-2012q/ tap July 25, 2015
  9. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYZcCX32JbU Tap July 25, 2015
  10. ↑ http://www.yabiladi.com/articles/details/37764/affaire-lmrabet-adressent-lettre-mohammed.html tap July 25, 2015
  11. ↑ http://www.courrierinternational.com/notule-source/le-journal-hebdomadaire tap July 25, 2015
  12. ↑ http://telquel.ma/2015/07/28/ali-lmrabet-arrete-greve-faim_1457593 As part of the protection of face, the minister expressly did not recognize that Lmrabet has several places of residence, including one in Tetuan.
personal data
SURNAME Lmrabet, Ali
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Moroccan diplomat, journalist and author
DATE OF BIRTH December 30, 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Tetouan , Northern Morocco