The Moroccan regime prides itself in being one of the most democratic countries in the Arab world. "One of the least autocratic" in the region would be a fairer description. As such, its attitude the press is like many other undemocratic regimes that have grudgingly liberalized under external and internal pressures.

Confronted with a nascent independent press, the regime adjust their repressive methods to their new situation. At the beginning of his reign, the Moroccan monarch, Mohammed VI, outright banned the fre press. His image of a liberal Arab ruler suffered so much as a result that his regime now uses more insidious ways to put a lid on the media. These are essentially judicial harassment and economic smothering.

These last years have seen a flurry of court rulings in defamation cases against the free press that imposed heavy fines and invoked antiquated laws like a ban from "exercising" journalism. The weekly magazine "Le Journal Hebdomadaire" was ordered to pay $300,000 in damages in a defamation case where the rights of the defense were egregiously ignored. In another notorious case, the journalist Ali Lmrabet was banned from practicing journalism for 10 years.

The judiciary in Morocco is subservient to the monarchy so its rulings merely reflect the will of the regime. The regime is imposing an unofficial advertisement boycott on media deemed too critical. The king, the most important businessman in Morocco, personally controls more than 30% of the national stock market capitalization and is consequently one of the biggest advertisers in the country. Add to that his control of the state owned companies and he ends up exerting tremendous economic influence on the media market.

Despite all these obstacles, the confluence of an internal demand for more liberties and the bad international publicity associated with repressing the free press help some truly independent publications survive.

Yet as far as international pressure is concerned, the Arab world has seen some profound hypocrisy. While advocating democracy in the region, the Bush administration was relying on human right abusers to aid it in the fight against terrorism. These human rights abusers, heads of state, high ranking security apparatus officials and the like were and are the ones who are the most opposed to the flourishing of a truly free and independent press. It is hence the duty of the western, and more particularly, the American civil society, press, Human right NGO's to expose this situation. It is the only way to help tilting the balance in favour of genuine democratic forces in our countries.