The government of Morocco has seized the 6 September 2001 issue of the
Spanish newspaper "El Mundo," after the daily printed statements by the
Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister Josep Pique insinuating that the
Moroccan police had ties to the (immigration) mafia, according to
Reporters sans frontières (RSF). Sources told RSF that all 200 copies of
the issue were confiscated at the Casablanca Airport. "Every time a
foreign newspaper writes an article that displeases the Moroccan
government, it gets banned," comments RSF.

The ban on "El Mundo" is the fifth this year on foreign newspapers, the
most recent of which occurred on 17 May, when French weekly "Courrier
International" was confiscated for a story which carried the title "In
the biggest Berber nation in the world."
In January, an issue of the Spanish weekly "Epoca" was banned for
containing an article which was critical of the government's December
2000 ban on three newspapers.