MOROCCO NEWS BOARD
AHMED CHAOUI
Who is Ali Lmrabet? For his supporters, Ali is an opposition journalist critical of the Moroccan government; for others Mr. Lmrabet is an agent working for Spain’s’ intelligence services. Regardless of how Moroccans feel about him, Mr. Lmrabet contentious articles and “radical” views have galvanized the Moroccan public. If Lmrabet’s controversial personality continues to intrigue and attract small segments of the Moroccan readership, Morocco’s opponents have been thrilled to use his material to tarnish its image.
For some Moroccans, Ali Lmrabet has metamorphosed from a regime opponent into a self-hating Moroccan servicing foreign interests.
Mr. Lmrabet, former editor of the banned weekly, le Journal, and at one point a correspondent for the right-wing Spanish daily El Mundo, has had few running with the Moroccan authorities uncomfortable with his disparaging articles. Ali was sentenced for the crime of treason in 2003 and consequently barred from “practicing the profession of journalist in Morocco” as stated in a judgment rendered by a Moroccan court.
During his early days as le Journal editor, the Moroccan public enjoyed his distinctive style, daring articles and bold choice of subjects to embrace. Even after his banning, Moroccans ,thirsty for critical coverage of the political situation in their country, followed Lmrabet writings. However, as Ali’s positions moved away from a positive criticism of Moroccan political actors and institutions to a support of foreign governments’ anti-Morocco positions, the Moroccan public turned against the one-time popular journalist. Ali Lmrabet is entitled to his views and has the right to criticize the government and other Moroccan institutions as long as his writings and reporting are fair and “tactful”. Unfortunately, Lmrabet’s recent articles are inconsiderate, rude and clumsy.
Two subjects in Demain’s coverage seem to irk. its pro-Algeria position in treating the subject of the Western Sahara conflict and Lmrabet injurious coverage of the Morocco-France relations have pushed many to desert and abandon his publication.
It has covered troublesome events, solely, in the Moroccan controlled Sahara, never to mention the Moroccan position or counterbalancing its coverage by reporting on frequent troubles in Tindouf or Algiers. On several occasions, Lmrabet’s summarized news items on Morocco and the Western Sahara originally written by Algeria’s unreliable official news agency or the Polisario (Western Sahara separatist movement) propaganda organs. As his coverage continued to espouse the Algerian position, the public started to turned against Ali.
Ali’s mean-spirited coverage of the French Moroccan female political activist Najat Vallaud-Belkacem was a turning point for many who supported Lmrabet. Mrs. Vallaud-Belkacem was the public figure of the Socialist Party during the last French Election. She currently serves as Minister of Women’s Rights in the French Government. Nevertheless, for Lmarabet, Najat was a “Moroccan spy reporting to the Royal Palace”.
Instead of supporting a French Moroccan who aspires to help her country of birth, Lmrabet went into a nasty personal attack singling out Najat just because of her origins. In fact, Moroccan Diaspora is supporting their country of origins’ causes just as Greek Americans and Turkish American would do in lobbying for their ancestors’ lands interests.
Ali Lmrabet’s readership is insignificant; however, his destructive writings, as a Moroccan, are serious and harmful to Morocco’s interests because as they are being used in the ongoing the media war being waged against Moroccan interests in North Africa.
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