#4 Morocco

The Law: The interesting thing about Morocco is that it doesn’t have any law governing or defining Internet censorship criteria. The Government and telecommunication operators block and unblock sites at their will. Many blogging sites are blocked in the country. It has banned the websites like YouTube and even Google Earth without any reasons!

So, as there are no judiciary decisions leading to sites blocking, one can only speculate about the real reason. One reason is that the blocked sites contain information on ‘Polisario,’ a movement which demands independence of Western Sahara from Morocco. Also, any site which talks anything bad about monarchy or the king will be blocked.

Penalties: Mohammed Raji, a journalist who wrote a blog criticizing the king and the monarchy of the country got two years of imprisonment and a huge fine in 2008. Hassan Berhun, a journalist and blogger was sentenced to 6 months in prison, in March 2009, for publishing a petition denouncing corruption and demanding the prosecution of those who are involved in the escape of a top drug trafficker from the city of Tetouan.