Morocco, 25 October 2006
Anne Torhild Nilsen and Radmund Steinsvag had requested visas at the Moroccan
embassy in Oslo in January without getting a response. Instead of openly
refusing to give journalists visas, the Moroccan authorities often sit on
applications indefinitely. "These two journalists, who are known for
their coverage of Western Sahara, have once again been the victims of the
Moroccan government's bad faith," Reporters Without Borders said. "Any
pretext will do in order to obstruct their work. They were prevented from
working more than a year ago when making a documentary about the human right
situation in the region." When contacted by Reporters Without Borders,
the Moroccan embassy in Oslo said it sent their visa applications to Rabat
and was still waiting for a reply. The embassy said the decision whether
to issue a visa to a journalist "depends on many criteria" but
did not say what they were. Nilsen and Steinsvag arrived in El Aaiún,
the capital of Western Sahara, on a flight from Las Palmas in the Canary
Islands but were stopped by immigration officials, who checked with their
superiors and then told them to return to Las Palmas on the same plane and
submit a visa request there. The plane's departure was delayed until the
two journalists had reboarded. Nilsen said: "The Moroccan ploy of not
responding to journalists' visa requests is very clever. There is little
you can do when they do not respond. We cannot denounce them because they
have not told us were are banned from entering Morocco. A definitive 'no'
would clearly show that impartial observers are not welcome and that the
regime has things to hide." _______________________________________________
Source: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19445