Without full information it is hard to know what to think per se.

I'm not surprised, to be frank. Tel Quel has been, well, rather on the cutting edge of things. Interesting to read but of somewhat interesting journalistic standards.

Its long obsession with the Servaty Affaire (Agadir porno incident) including publication of photos that one must say might not have passed muster in North American publications, and its risque, French style illustrations have always been well over the line. Although the Embassy crowds loved reading it, I have never thought all that highly of its journalistic standards. But then it's largely a scandal mag, and I am largely uninterested in much of what it writes about. Markets and deals are my lifeblood.

This aside, the charges are clearly a pretext

About two months ago, an opinion column in the magazine criticizing the national parliament noted in passing that one politician was a former dancer. The column didn't mention the legislator by name, but the woman (indeed a former dancer) sued for character defamation. The court - clearly with orders from on high - refused to hear Benchemsiany arguments from TelQuel's lawyer and announced the massive fine.

I have not seen local coverage of this (surprise, surprise, local press is rather more obsessed with other matters - including the incredibly tedious Eastern European style agitprop over the Sahara), but it's not particularly stunning.

So, what is my take on this?

Off the cuff, I rather dislike censorship, and this is indeed censorship. I dislike judicial corruption and manipulation, and if reported correctly, it is indeed that.

However, neither am I particularly taken with Tel Quel. To present the magazine as the best thing since sliced bread in terms of the development of the Moroccan or Arab press is to set a rather low and sad standard. There are places for sensationalistic, purient magazines - perhaps among them on the forefront of setting standards of press freedom in conservative countries.

Regardless, this is not the poster child I would have chosen for a conflict. I would guess that this occured, by the way, at the level of the Makhzenian officialdom responding to pressure. The King will likely roll back after a while.

That aside, I also dislike the standard of attack. Defamation for such trivial grounds? Tel Quel might be better attacked for other other grounds.

I should say that I almost believe Tel Quel should have been fined for its incredibly vapid and idiotic 100 reasons to be confident feature, whose cited reasons play well to that narrow, corrupt liberal elite I do business with, but are more likely to be offensive to the masses.

In short, I am then somewhat cool to this whole thing. It's a bad sign, to be sure, but then Tel Quel was not all that either, and I frankly don't think it has the relevance that the reporting blog gives it. It served the Francophone elite eco chamber. Big bloody deal.

When as-Sabah gets censored, then I might feel something happened. When a self-indulgent (if often interesting and even sometimes useful) scandal rag gets censored, I am not happy, but let's be realistic kiddies. Morocco ain't France, and you can't bloody well act as if it is.

Takes time to get there, from here.

However as a further thought, what I most would be bothered with, overcoming my disdain for Tel Quel, is the damage this may do to the overall media business here and free reporting. The silliness and pure trumped upness of the claim against Tel Quel in this particular instance is the most bothersome part. It suggests that connexions and political influence remain (ah there's a surprise) able to trump law and standards.

However, again, Tel Quel's habit of delving into the salacious or finding the salacious angle, often in its visuals especially, on serious topics probably got it into a less-than-entirely defensible spot.