RABAT: Morocco has suspended the operations of the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television news channel in Rabat and withdrawn the accreditations of its staff, the communications ministry said Friday.
The ministry said the sanctions followed "numerous failures in (following) the rules of serious and responsible journalism."
The Al-Jazeera bureau chief in Rabat, Palestinian Abdelkader Kharroubi, told AFP that the channel "has always respected the rule of professionalism and neutrality, particularly in Morocco."
He added that "unfortunately the question of Al-Jazeera is not only in the hands of the communications ministry. Other parties decide at this level."
Without identifying these "parties," Kharroubi said the suspension was "a mistake on the part of the Moroccan authorities, a mistake which has nothing to do with us."
