Mediterranean Games: Moroccan Sports Press Association slams Algerian authorities’ decision to refuse entry to Moroccan Media
The Moroccan Sports Press Association (AMPS) has condemned the decision of the Algerian authorities to prevent the Moroccan media delegation from entering Algeria to cover the 19th edition of the Mediterranean Games, scheduled to take place in Oran from June 25 to July 6.
“The AMPS is shocked to learn that the media delegation accompanying the Moroccan sports teams was banned from entering Algerian soil when it landed at the airport of Oran, Wednesday night,” the association said in a statement.
Criticizing “this position that ignores the international conventions of the media and hinders the right of journalists to exercise their professional duty,” the AMPS urges “all international and continental supervisory institutions to take urgent action to protect the Moroccan media delegation, blocked at the international airport of Oran.”
Despite the efforts of the representatives of the Moroccan National Olympic Committee, the Consulate General of Morocco in Oran, and the members of the International Committee of Mediterranean Games, “the Moroccan media delegation had to spend the night at the airport in extremely deplorable conditions,” according to the statement.
Although the members of the delegation waited “for the procedures to be completed on Thursday morning, the authorities at Oran airport refused to grant the Moroccan media delegation entry to Algeria to carry out its duty,” the AMPS deplored.
In a related development, the Moroccan Alliance of Sports Journalists (AMJS) expressed “its great surprise and deep dissatisfaction” at the treatment reserved by Algerian authorities to the Moroccan media delegation, describing this treatment as “incomprehensible and unacceptable.”
The AMJS called on “the relevant Algerian authorities and on the Organizing Committee of the Mediterranean Games to be proactive and reasonable and to intervene quickly to facilitate the entry of the Moroccan media delegation to Oran and ensure its safety”.
