20101030
africanews

Morocco communications ministry has suspended the operations of the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television news channel in Rabat and withdrawn the accreditations of its staff.

The ministry said the sanctions were due to Al-Jazeera’s failure to follow “the rules of serious and responsible journalism”, AFP said on Friday.

But the Al-Jazeera bureau chief in Rabat, Palestinian Abdelkader Kharroubi, told AFP that the channel “has always respected the rule of professionalism and neutrality, particularly in Morocco.”

Kharroubi added that “unfortunately the question of Al-Jazeera is not only in the hands of the communications ministry. Other parties decide at this level.”

A government official who declined to be named said the authorities took exception “to the way Al-Jazeera handles the issues of Islamists and Western Sahara.”

More than 2,000 Islamists have been arrested and sentenced in Morocco since the Casablanca bombings of May 16, 2003.

Morocco backs the option of broad autonomy for the territory, but rejects any notion of independence for Western Sahara.