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Inside Story
Press control in the Arab world
Inside Story looks at the trial of Al Jazeera's Rabat bureau chief in Morocco.
Last Modified: 02 Jul 2008 06:55 GMT

The trial of Hassan Rachidi, Al Jazeera's Rabat bureau chief, has begun in Morocco [AFP]
The trial of Al Jazeera's Rabat bureau chief and his primary source has begun in Morocco, in the latest instance of blowback over the recent incidents in Sidi Ifni.

Hassan Rachidi and Ibrahim Sebaâ El Layl, the president of the Moroccan Centre for Human Rights, have been charged with "broadcasting false information and complicity".

The Moroccan government stripped Rachidi of his accreditation following the broadcast of a news story claiming that between six and ten people had died following demonstrations in the town of Sidi Ifni on June 7.

On the Arab media front, Arab governments, led by Egypt and Saudi Arabia, have adopted a satellite broadcasting charter, which will entrench state control over broadcasts and curtail political expression on the airwaves across the region of some 300 million people.

The charter, signed by information ministers in Cairo in February, bans broadcasting material seen as undermining "social peace, national unity, public order and general propriety", criticising religions or defaming political, national and religious leaders.

We ask: Are Arab governments oversensitive about criticism from outside? And how far can these regulations affect what the viewers get to watch on their TV screens?

This episode of Inside Story aired on Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Source:
Al Jazeera
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