By posting a tweet on his personal account in which he denounces the repeated attacks by Algerian public television against Morocco, Abdessamad Nacir, a famous journalist with Al Jazeera, where he has worked since 1997, renowned for his professionalism and rigor, was far to suspect that he was risking his career. However, this is what happened and, worse, he was fired by the Qatari channel.
It all started when, on Twitter, the star presenter delivered a fair comment on the ignominy of the treatment reserved by the Algerian public media in Morocco, citing an example among the daily “topics” dealing with Morocco, where the insult disputes him disinformation and fake news. In the “report” mentioned, the Kingdom is accused of prostituting its women. “It is a flagrant illustration of the real debauchery in which the official media of the Algerian regime are engaged. Algerian public television attacks Morocco in all baseness and accuses the Moroccan state of trading in the honor and dignity of Moroccan women. It is unprecedented, it is immoral and it is very low,” wrote the journalist.
It took him badly. As soon as the comment was published, Abdessamad Nacir was contacted by the Qatari channel’s news director, who was an Algerian national, ordering him to withdraw the tweet. Nacir defends himself by affirming that his attitude concerns freedom of expression in a space which in no way engages Al Jazeera. The Moroccan journalist is then summoned to the general manager of the channel who gives him the same “order” to withdraw or modify the content of his tweet.
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Abdessamad Nacir does not give in. Shortly after, the channel announces that it has terminated its contract, unilaterally. The channel’s attitude thus amounts to unfair dismissal. This, while other Algerian journalists and animators of the same group, in particular the mediocre sports commentator Hafid Deradji, do not stop attacking Morocco and its institutions on social networks and even beyond. With impunity.
The reaction of the SNPM
In a press release published this Thursday, June 1, the National Syndicate of the Moroccan Press (SNPM) firmly denounces the reaction of the channel and speaks of a “plot” hatched by an Algerian lobby within the Qatari media group and of pressure exerted by the Algerian embassy in Doha.
Expressing its total solidarity with the Moroccan journalist, the SNPM affirms that it intends to challenge in writing the direction ofAlJazeera. This, in the same way as the International Federation of Journalists and the General Union of Arab Journalists. For the union, the entire credibility of the news channel has been undermined and such a measure renders meaningless the slogans of freedom of expression and independence of journalists that it claims. That’s an understatement. Case to follow.
