Amnesty International (AI) has called on the government of Morocco to dismiss its ‘trumped up charges’ against a journalist, Hanane Bakour, over a Facebook post she made.

Development Diaries reports Bakour faces up to three years in prison and a fine after being accused of ‘publishing fake news by using electronic means that harm private life’.

In the Facebook post, Bakour criticised the holding of a local election by the ruling party.

The trial began on Monday, 10 April.

AI’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Heba Morayef, described the action of the government as shocking.

Morayef said, ‘It is shocking, heavy-handed and absurd that a journalist faces criminal charges over a Facebook post that was critical of Morocco’s main political party. Hanane Bakour has a right to her opinions, even if politicians object to them’.

The charges, it is understood, stem from a complaint from the ruling party, the National Rally of Independents (RNI), in September 2021.

Bakour had posted that the election of the new president of the party council in the region of Guelmim-Oued Noun, southern Morocco, was flawed because an RNI member had been critically wounded by a gunshot at his house.

In 2022 alone, Moroccan authorities, according to AI, investigated, prosecuted and imprisoned at least seven journalists and activists for criticising the government, as well as people who spoke online about religion or expressed solidarity with activists.

Freedom House rated Morocco as ‘partly free’ in its 2023 Freedom in the World study of political rights and civil liberties, with the country earning 37 points out of a possible 100.

Development Diaries hereby calls on the Moroccan government to respect the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) law that provides the key articulation of the right to freedom of expression, which it ratified in 1979.

Source: Amnesty International

Photo source: Hanane Bakour