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Paris-based media watchdog Reporters without Borders (RSF) said the boycott had been launched in August last year after Nichane, its French-language stablemate Telquel and France's prestigious Le Monde conducted an opinion poll on the monarchy.
The poll, which found that King Mohammed VI had done a good overall job in the first decade of his reign but needed to do more to reduce poverty, was swiftly censored in Morocco, despite its largely positive view.
The Moroccan magazines were seized and 100,000 copies destroyed, while the relevant edition of Le Monde was barred from the country, as Communications Minister Khalid Naciri said that the monarchy "cannot be the object of debate even through a poll".
RSF said the royal holding company ONA/NSI was the first to boycott Nichane, followed by state-owned and parastatal outfits and businesses close to the government.
"It was a slow but programmed execution of Nichane," Benchemsi said, while RSF deplored the disappearance of "another space for exercising freedom of expression".
Le Monde and Spanish daily El Pais were also barred in October last year for publishing cartoons satirising the monarchy.
The cartoons originally appeared in the weekly Akhbar Al Youm, whose managing editor Taoufik Bouachrine and cartoonist Khaled Gueddar were each given a four-year suspended prison sentence and ordered to pay heavy fines and damages, while the paper was shut down.
Also in October the managing editor of the weekly Al Michaal, Idriss Chahtane, was sentenced to a year's jail for publishing contested articles on the health of the king.
In November the founding editor of Morocco's biggest-selling daily Al Massae, Rachid Nini, was given three months for "publishing false information".
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The poll, which found that King Mohammed VI had done a good overall job in the first decade of his reign but needed to do more to reduce poverty, was swiftly censored in Morocco, despite its largely positive view.
The Moroccan magazines were seized and 100,000 copies destroyed, while the relevant edition of Le Monde was barred from the country, as Communications Minister Khalid Naciri said that the monarchy "cannot be the object of debate even through a poll".
RSF said the royal holding company ONA/NSI was the first to boycott Nichane, followed by state-owned and parastatal outfits and businesses close to the government.
"It was a slow but programmed execution of Nichane," Benchemsi said, while RSF deplored the disappearance of "another space for exercising freedom of expression".
Le Monde and Spanish daily El Pais were also barred in October last year for publishing cartoons satirising the monarchy.
The cartoons originally appeared in the weekly Akhbar Al Youm, whose managing editor Taoufik Bouachrine and cartoonist Khaled Gueddar were each given a four-year suspended prison sentence and ordered to pay heavy fines and damages, while the paper was shut down.
Also in October the managing editor of the weekly Al Michaal, Idriss Chahtane, was sentenced to a year's jail for publishing contested articles on the health of the king.
In November the founding editor of Morocco's biggest-selling daily Al Massae, Rachid Nini, was given three months for "publishing false information".
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