Morocco: Journalist of Algerian origin expelled

Mediapart journalist Nejma Brahim was expelled from Morocco the day after she arrived at Tangier’s Ibn Battouta Airport. According to her newsroom, she had traveled there last Thursday to «gather testimonies from families bereaved by the migration tragedy in Ceuta» after covering the events from the Spanish side.

The French outlet said it wanted to «continue its coverage», this time from the Moroccan side, but that the French national was «taken by the General Directorate for National Security (DGSN) to an office where she was questioned by several officers» and «explained the journalistic reasons for her visit».

Nejma Brahim was then placed in the airport waiting area overnight before her passport was handed back to her on Friday morning by the captain of the flight to Paris. The refusal-of-entry document she was given listed her nationality as «French of Algerian origin».

In a statement seen by Yabiladi on Tuesday, the Tangier branch of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) deplored a measure that «deprives the public of its right to information, particularly regarding the situation of victims of mass migration» toward Ceuta and Melilla. The NGO also condemned «an infringement of the right to access and disseminate information». Mediapart, for its part, said the French consular authorities had been notified of the journalist’s case but were unable to prevent the decision taken against her.

While no expulsions of foreign journalists had been reported in Morocco in connection with coverage of the migration situation in Ceuta, the country’s authorities had previously asked teams from Spanish public broadcaster TVE and the EFE news agency to leave the city of Fnideq.

The instruction, delivered verbally, followed obstacles encountered by crews from Morocco’s 2M television channel at the hands of Spanish authorities while they were reporting in the enclave, where their equipment was seized at the entrance.