Le Journal Hebdomadaire

"Le Journal Hebdomadaire" (French for "The Weekly Journal"; often shortened to "Le Journal Hebdo"), is a French language, Moroccan weekly magazine. It has an Arabic language counterpart called "Assahifa Al Ousbouia".

Background

It is privately owned, and has an independent and often critical editorial line against the Moroccan government. Its editor-in-chief is Aboubakr Jamaï. Its main office is located in Casablanca, Morocco.

Censorship

The magazine has been subjected to repeated instances of judicial trials, and editors and journalists on the newspaper have been fined for news coverage that "affected the stability of the state". [http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=242] Its original name was "Le Journal", but it reincarnated as "Le Journal Hebdomadaire" after being banned by the government in December 2000.

On February 16, 2006, the magazine was fined the equivalent of 350,000 euro in a defamation case relating to a report on the Polisario Front's alleged ties to terrorist groups in the Sahel and its misuse of international humanitarian aid [http://www.esisc.org/LE%20FRONT%20POLISARIO.pdf] . The press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) described the trial as "politically motivated and unfair", and said that it could prove a "fatal blow" to the weekly magazine. [http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=16485]

Jyllands-Posten's Muhammad cartoons

Le Journal was the only Moroccan magazine that reprinted cartoons from the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. It showed a photograph of a man holding the French "France Soir" with the cartoons blotted out.

ee also

* Telquel (Morocco)

External links

* [http://www.lejournal-hebdo.com/ Official Web site] Closed in early 2008.