Le Journal Hebdomadaire (French for The Weekly Journal; often shortened to Le Journal Hebdo), was a French language, Moroccan weekly magazine, published between 1997 and 2010 [1]. It had an Arabic language counterpart called Assahifa Al Ousbouia.
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It is privately owned, and has an independent and critical editorial line against the Moroccan government. It is a strong advocate of democratic reform, and often broaches subjects that are politically or culturally taboo in Morocco. Its editor-in-chief is Aboubakr Jamaï. Its main office is located in Casablanca, Morocco.
The magazine has been subjected to repeated instances of judicial trials, and editors and journalists on the newspaper have been fined for news coverage that "affected the stability of the state". Its original name was Le Journal, but it reincarnated as Le Journal Hebdomadaire after being banned by the government in December 2000.
On February 16, 2006, the magazine was fined the equivalent of 350,000 euro in a defamation after criticising a report on the Polisario Front's alleged ties to terrorist groups in the Sahel and its misuse of international humanitarian aid[2], which the magazine said appeared to copy Moroccan state propaganda.[3] The press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) described the trial as "politically motivated and unfair", and said that it could prove a "fatal blow" to the weekly magazine.[4]
Eventually the magazine closed down in February 2010.[1]
Le Journal was criticised for reprinting cartoons from the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, although it in fact showed only a photograph of a man holding the French France Soir with the cartoons blotted out.