Morocco's topselling Arabic language weekly Nichane, which had taken up in the past taboo subjects like monarchy and Islam, closed shop last week blaming "the highest circles of power" for organising a boycott of advertisers.
The trouble for the magazine began last year after Nichane, its French-language sister publication TelQuel and France's Le Monde newspaper conducted an opinion poll on the monarchy. The poll, which found that King Mohammed VI had done a good overall job in the first decade of his reign but needed to do more to reduce poverty, was swiftly censored. About 100,000 copies of the magazine were destroyed, and the particular edition of Le Monde was banned from selling in Morocco. The reason given was that the monarchy "cannot be the object of debate even through a poll".
The royal holding company Omnium Nord-Africain Group was the first to boycott Nichane (which means "straighforward" or "direct"), followed by state-owned and quasi-state businesses close to the government. The boycott was brazen. After the revenues dipped to 80 percent, the shareholders decided it was time to take a call. They met last week and decided to close down the magazine, the TelQuel group said in a statement later.
TelQuel, meanwhile, will continue to publish. Since most of its French-language advertisers are based outside of Morocco, it does not face any immediate danger.
Ahmed Benchemsi, the publisher, told columnist Max Fisher, "When you see your colleagues harassed, when you're harassed yourself, when you have to close a newspaper, I have to tell you its painful. Before writing anything you have to think about it twice. We are more careful now than we were four years ago. Of course we're still critical, we're still independent."
But Nichane had been running into trouble with the monarchy from the beginning. Launched in September 2006, it ran a cover story on Moroccan humour, printing popular jokes about the king, religion, and other taboo topics. Moroccan Prime Minister Driss Jettou banned the magazine for several months and closed down its website in December that year.
Editor Driss Ksikes and reporter Sanaa al-Aji were prosecuted for "defaming Islam and damaging morality" and sentenced to fines of 80,000 dirhams each and three-year suspended sentences. Additionally, the magazine was banned initially for two months.
Unlike many Arab countries, Morocco does not have state-owned newspapers. But most publications tow the palace line. Few dare to take on the royalty. In January this year, Le Journal Hebdomadaire, a French-language weekly, folded up after years battling against the regime. It was even more critical than Nichane.
