The “Yaqadh Association for Democracy and the Civil State” awarded incarcerated journalist Taoufik Bouachrine with the Maghreb Ethical Journalism Prize, a prestigious award given annually in memory of Najiba Hamrouni, a pioneering journalist and former president of the journalists’ union in Tunisia. The award serves to recognize those who demonstrate outstanding journalistic ethics while standing as staunch defenders of press freedom, often at considerable personal sacrifice.
Bouachrine’s commendation was proposed by an assembly of Arab academics, human rights activists, and journalists.
Over the years, the award has been conferred to numerous notable figures in the journalistic world. Fatima Ifriqui, another Moroccan journalist, was the recipient in 2018. The following year, the Algerian news website, “Tout Sur l’Algérie” (TSA), held the honor. In 2020, the Tunisian news website “Nawaat” was the awardee. The award in 2021 was shared between Omar Radi and Souliiman Raissouni, two imprisoned Moroccan journalists. Last year, the honor was conferred to Rabah Karèche, an Algerian journalist.
The Yaqadh Association expressed again concern over what they deemed as “his unfair and politically-motivated detention.”
The former editor-in-chief of Akhbar Al Yaoum, Taoufik Bouachrine, was one of Morocco’s most-read columnists.
