From yesterday's Washington Post story on the Nichane case:
Moroccan journalists said it has become increasingly difficult to figure out how far they can go in exercising their newfound liberties. Ahmed R. Benchemsi, the publisher of Nichane and a French-language newsweekly, TelQuel, said his magazines had broached sensitive topics before -- one article revealed details about the king's personal finances -- without apparent repercussions.
"I wish I knew where the red lines were," Benchemsi said in an interview Monday after the verdict was announced. "I would never have imagined that reprinting common jokes would have been like stepping on a land mine. And I am an expert on land mines: I have been dodging them for five years."
...The defendants said they would appeal the conviction but expressed relief that the judge suspended their jail sentences and did not permanently ban them from practicing journalism, as prosecutors had sought. But other Moroccan journalists said it was hard to take any solace in the outcome.
"The best sign that could have been sent would have been to not prosecute them in the first place," said Aboubakr Jamai, publisher of Le Journal Hebdomadaire, a newsweekly that has been repeatedly prosecuted and fined by the government for its aggressive reporting.
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