Frankfurt, Germany (TMT)- The Moroccan Ministry of Interior will be suing Morocco’s most read newspaper Akhbar Al Yaoum for “undermining Morocco’s reputation” in an article published yesterday, which sheds light on the death toll of sub-Saharan immigrants while trying to cross the Mediterranean sea to reach Spain in the last ten years.
The article in question is entitled “3200 Immigrants Passed Away in the Moroccan Coast” and affirms that “the Mediterranean beaches have become the largest cemetery in the world for illegal immigrants.”
In a statement relayed by Morocco’s state agency Maghreb Agence Press (La MAP), the Ministry of Interior said it will be lodging a complaint in court against the Arabic daily Akhbar Al Yaoum for having shared wrong data and figures in the aforementioned article.
The Ministry further noted that it “categorically refutes” the content of this “unfounded article,” from which “the author seeks to undermine the reputation of Morocco and to underestimate initiatives and efforts of the public authorities, with those latter’s efforts and know-how in managing the issue well recognized by the international community.”
Akhbar Al Yaoum answered the claims saying that “the data shared concerns Ceuta and Melilla as well, as they are considered as occupied territories.”
Contacted by Telquel.ma, the editor-in-chief of Akhbar Al Yaoum, Taoufik Bouachrine, who is also Morocco’s most read columnist, said that “the data contained in the said article is based on reports from the UN and the EU.”
Taoufik Bouachrine further noted that “this prosecution affects the freedom of the press and the right to public information” in Morocco.
“I think the Ministry Interior does not attack us because of this article, but because of other articles we published,” Bouachrine told Telquel without specifying which articles he was referring to.
The Moroccan Times.
