3 NEWSPAPERS FINED FOR INSULTING GADDAFI
The National Union of the Moroccan Press described the trial as a "blow for press freedom in the kingdom"
The Casablanca-based court ordered on Monday the three independent Arabic newspapers to pay three million Dirhams ($372,300) in damages for defaming Moammar Gaddafi, the head of Libyan state.
Source: Al Jazeera
- Five of the papers’ staff were also fined 100,000 dirhams ($12,410) each for "attacks on the character and the dignity of a head of state", Moroccos' official news agency MAP reported.
- Al Jarida Al Aoula, Al Ahdat Al Maghribia and Al Massae were sued by Gaddafi and the Libyan embassy in Morocco had asked a public prosecutor to claim damages of 30 million dirhams from each paper for articles published between 2008 and early 2009.
- It warned the three penalised newspapers faced closure because of the fines.
- The trial was also strongly condemned by the National Union of the Moroccan Press, which described the trial as a "a blow for press freedom in Morocco and an attempt to execute the press".
- The union staged a demonstration following the trial outside the Casablanca court.
- Journalists held a banner calling for "the justice system to respect freedom of expression and stop attacks aimed at muzzling the press".
GATHAFI HAILS OBAMA AS A BEACON OF LIGHT
Libyan leader says 'reasonable' political discourse of US President breaks away from 'arrogance' of predecessors.
TRIPOLI - Libya's Moamer Gathafi compared US President Barack Obama on Tuesday to a beacon of light in the "obscurity of imperialism," and said his reasoned remarks shattered the "arrogance" of his predecessors."President Obama is a beacon of light in the obscurity of imperialism," the Libyan leader said in a speech broadcast on state radio.
"So far his political discourse has been reasonable, breaking with the arrogance that was prevalent in statements by former US presidents," he said after Obama spoke in favour of a Palestinian state and reached out to Muslims.
Gathafi also spoke of his fear that "this new young American president will be killed, as happened to American presidents Abraham Lincoln and John Kennedy, and also to Martin Luther King," the US black civil rights leader.He also hailed "the commitment of the United States to a world without nuclear weapons," after Obama pledged in a speech in Prague on Sunday to lead the quest for a world without atomic weapons.
Gathafi renounced ambitions to build weapons of mass destruction in 2003, resulting in the return of his oil-rich north African nation to the international fold.
VISITORS GEOFLAGS SINCE AUGUST 26, 2009
