Freed editor says stop jailing journalists

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published 13 years ago

RABAT: A Moroccan editor who rights activists say was unjustly prosecuted for criticizing the authorities walked free after completing his one-year jail sentence and demanded an end to the practice of sending journalists to prison.

Rights group Amnesty International has described Rachid Nini as a "prisoner of conscience" and said he was punished for highlighting corruption and abuses by the kingdom's authorities, especially the security services.

Since Nini's arrest, pressure has been building for Morocco to stop using its criminal justice system to jail journalists over what they write, especially after the "Arab Spring" revolts improved media freedom in many parts of the region.

"I hope that I will be the last journalist to be imprisoned and tried under the criminal law," Nini told reporters and supporters who gathered at his home near Casablanca, Morocco's commercial capital.

"We want a press law to try journalists and not to be treated as criminals."

Nini was arrested in April last year. A court ruled he was guilty of crimes including "discrediting a court, trying to influence the judiciary and publishing information about untrue criminal offences". – Reuters