Aboubakr Jamaï

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Aboubakr Jamaï
أبو بكر الجامعي
Yale World Fellow
(2004)

Aboubakr Jamaï (

Assahifa al-Ousbouiya. In 2003, he was awarded the International Press Freedom Award of the Committee to Protect Journalists
.

Background

Aboubakr Jamaï is the son of

Hassan II[1] and was imprisoned and tortured in 1973.[2]

After he graduated from ISCAE in 1992,[3] he co-founded Upline Securities, in 1993, Morocco's first independent investment bank conducting the first privatization IPO in Morocco. He also joined the Executive Secretariat of the Middle East and North Africa Economic Summit as a financial adviser in 1996.[4][5]

At age 29, he moved into financial journalism, co-founding the

French-language news weekly magazine, in 1997. As a model, Jamaï used the Spanish paper El País because of the way it had started as a weekly paper under Francisco Franco's rule before growing into a media conglomerate.[2]

The journal's circulation was initially small, with the first issue selling only 3,000 copies, primarily to a business audience. However, the journal soon grew by word-of-mouth, attracting a non-business audience and attracting more advertisers.

Arabic-language sister publication, Assahifa al-Ousbouiya, designed to appeal to a broader audience.[4]

In 1999, Aboubakr Jamaï received an

MBA from Said Business School at the University of Oxford.[7][6]

In 2007 Jamaï was forced into exile and had to resign as the publisher of both "Le Journal Hebdomadaire" and "Assahifa al-Ousbouiya". In May 2008, he earned a Master in Public Administration at Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University.

He taught Contemporary Politics in the Middle East at the University of San Diego for a year and then move to Spain where he worked as an independent consultant.

Since 2014, he has lived in the south of France where he serves as Dean of the School of Business and International Relations at The American College of the Mediterranean (ACM), an American-style degree-granting institution in Aix-en-Provence, France. He also oversees the business school and internship programs at ACM's study abroad institute, IAU College.

Conflict with Mohammed VI government

On 23 July 1999, Hassan II died, and his son

constitutional democracy.[1] As a result of the critical editorials printed by the papers, Moroccan printers soon refused to do business with them, forcing Jamaï to print in France and pay enormous transportation costs.[1]

In April 2000, Le Journal carried an interview with

Saharawi separatist movement Polisario Front that was fighting for the independence of Western Sahara from Morocco.[8] The Moroccan Ministry of Communications responded by banning both Le Journal and Assahifa Al Ousbouia, though the latter had not run the interview in question. A Ministry spokesperson stated that the reasons for the papers' banning were "excesses in [their] editorial line concerning the question of Morocco's territorial integrity" and "collusion with foreign interests".[6] Following an outcry from foreign governments and NGOs the papers were allowed to re-open.[6]

The conflict with the government won Jamaï's papers publicity and popular credibility. Which made advertising revenues increase substantially during the following months. In November, however, the paper reprinted a letter implicating a number of socialist politicians, including then-Prime Minister

Gerhard Schroeder on the occasion of Youssoufi's state visit to Germany—the government relented, and the papers were once more allowed to print.[6]

In 2006, in its reporting on the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy—in which a Danish newspaper published several cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad, triggering widespread anger in the Muslim world--Le Journal published a blacked-out version of one of the cartoons. The newspaper's offices were then the target of a series of protests, which Jamaï alleges were orchestrated by the national government.[10]

Benaissa defamation suit

At the time of the papers' first banning in April 2000, Foreign Minister Mohamed Benaissa filed a defamation lawsuit against Jamaï and another editor of his papers, Ali Amar, for a 1999 series of articles alleging that he had profited from the sale of an official residence during his tenure as Ambassador to the United States.[1][8] Jamaï later speculated that Benaissa "was waiting for a signal" to attack the papers and that he saw his opportunity following the announcement of the ban.[6] In 2001, the pair were found guilty, and sentenced to pay damages of 2 million dirhams (US$200,000). In addition, Jamaï was sentenced to three months' imprisonment, and Amar to two months.[8] Reporters Without Borders immediately called for the Moroccan Justice Minister to overturn the verdict, asserting that "Fines should not be used by the authorities with the aim of halting the appearance or publication of a media".[11]

Other lawsuits followed, and by 2006, Jamaï's debts amounted to more than US$1.5 million in fines, damages, and back taxes.[1] In 2002, Jamaï was told by a number of companies that had formerly advertised in his papers that they had been pressured by the government no longer to do so. Jamaï speculated to an interviewer that having realized that they could not shut him down directly without international pressure, the government was now seeking to bankrupt him.[6]

In 2006, Jamaï lost another libel suit, this time to Claude Moniquet, director of the

Moulay Hicham Ben Abdallah, offered to settle Jamaï's legal debts, but Jamaï refused, saying that he would "prefer to force the regime to let the press alone or be exposed for silencing it".[10] Jamaï then resigned from his papers and traveled to the US, where he was accepted at the Neiman Fellowship [LA1]  at Harvard University.[14] He returned to Morocco in 2009.[12]

Faced with growing debts and an advertising boycott, Le Journal went out of business in 2010.[15] On 16 February 2010, bailiffs arrived with a court order that the paper must cease publication. Jamaï announced to a crowd outside the office that he was leaving journalism, because "serious journalism has become impossible in Morocco today".[12]

Lakome.com

When the Arab Spring-inspired 2011 protests broke out in Morocco Jamaï began a web-based news service, Lakome.com. The site has a small staff and focuses on reporting political events throughout Morocco. By April 2011, it was the fourth-most-visited website in Morocco.[15]

Personal life

Aboubakr Jamaï is married to Leïla Aït Hmitti. Though a "fierce proponent" of the separation of church and state, he is a devout Muslim.[1]

Awards and recognition

In 2003, The Committee to Protect Journalists presented Jamaï its International Press Freedom Award,[8] "an annual recognition of courageous journalism".[16] The following year, he spent a year at

Nieman Fellow of Harvard University in 2007,[17] and in 2008 he was awarded the Tully Center Free Speech Award, of the Newhouse School of Public Communication at Syracuse University
.

In 2010, the

World Association of Newspapers awarded him its Gebran Tueni Prize, established in honor of the assassinated Lebanese editor and press freedom advocate of the same name.[2] He was Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow, Robert Bosch Stiftung in 2013. In 2016, he was awarded the Leaders for Democracy Award, Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED)
.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Jane Kramer (16 October 2006). "The Crusader". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
  2. ^
    World Association of Newspapers. Archived from the original
    on 29 November 2011. Retrieved 3 February 2012.
  3. ^ Amourag, Aïssa; Jouhari, Noureddine (24 February 2006). "Jusqu'où ira Aboubakr Jamaï dans son maquis contre le "makhzen" ? Le roi et moi". Maroc Hebdo. p. 20.
  4. ^ a b c "Aboubakr Jamaï". Yale University. 2008. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
  5. ^ "Aboubakr Jamaï". Robert Bosch Academy. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Hani Sabra (Fall–Winter 2002). "The Business of Journalism" (PDF). Committee to Protect Journalists. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
  7. ^ "Aboubakr Jamaï | Yale Greenberg World Fellows". worldfellows.yale.edu. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  8. ^ a b c d e "Morocco: Aboubakr Jamai". Committee to Protect Journalists. 2003. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
  9. ^ "Moroccan editor on hunger strike". BBC News. 11 January 2001. Retrieved 3 February 2012.
  10. ^ a b Scott Macleod (14 May 2006). "Aboubakr Jamai: Journalist". Time. Archived from the original on 22 March 2007. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
  11. ^ "Morocco editors jailed". BBC News. 2 March 2001. Retrieved 3 February 2012.
  12. ^ a b c "Morocco: Pioneer of independent press silenced amid censorship worries". Los Angeles Times. 16 February 2010. Retrieved 3 February 2012.
  13. ^ Mise à mort du Journal Hebdomadaire : une semaine pour payer trois millions de dirhams de dommages et intérêts, Reporters sans frontières, 23 December 2006
  14. ^ "Aboubakr Jamai Archives". Nieman Foundation. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  15. ^ a b Aida Alami (28 April 2011). "Web Offers a Voice to Journalists in Morocco". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 February 2012.
  16. ^ "CPJ International Press Freedom Awards 2011". Committee to Protect Journalists. 2011. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
  17. ^ "Contributors". Mediapolicy.org. 2012. Archived from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 3 February 2012.
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