When RSF flouts women rights and despises independence of Moroccan judiciary

Reporters without Borders (RSF) has issued a very biased statement, to say the least, in which it arrogantly put itself in the place of the Moroccan justice and castigated a women complaining of sexual assault by journalist Omar Radi, who is also facing espionage charges.

In an appeal to the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Dubravka Šimonovic, RSF compiled a diatribe against Morocco and ironically and lamentably against women’s rights as well in a country where feminist movements are struggling to make their voice heard.

It bluntly accused a woman who complains of being a rape victim of serving the government and adopted a discourse according to which a critical journalist should not face justice for rape charges because he is a rights activists, a man and a journalist??

 

In the West, rape accusations are usually taken seriously and rights groups stand with the oppressed while demanding a fair trial for all. None of that was expressed by RSF, which revealed that its political agenda takes primacy over human rights.

RSF, like Amnesty International, did not even bother to call the lady in question Hafsa Boutahar, who happened to be a co-worker of Omar Radi. They silenced her voice intentionally to serve their hostility to Morocco and its institutions.

With disdain for the independence of the judiciary in a sovereign country, RSF calls for Radi’s release and urges the UN to intervene against what it described “trumped up sex charges”.

RSF went forward in its bias to cite other cases of rape involving journalists including that of Taoufiq Bouachrine who was sued by many women, some used to work under his leadership in the same newspaper. In this case of blackmail and sexual assault, a woman in particular said she was raped by him while pregnant. Her husband was also working at the same newspaper.

If RSF continues its attacks and attempts to silence women accusing journalists of rape, it has better rebrand into “Reporters without Conscience”