In March of 2019, our volunteers served as trial observers in controversial, politicized criminal trials in Casablanca and Istanbul. In each case autocratic regimes punished freedom of expression and freedom of association, and denied defendants the right to a fair trial.
Protesters from the Rif movement ‘Hirak’ on demonstration against corruption, repression and unemployment. Photo Credit: CPJ/ AFP PHOTO / FADEL SENNA
In Casablanca, Morocco, Dick Winfield and Walid Taha were the sole foreign observers at the trial of a prominent journalist, Hamid Mahdaoui, and 38 Rif Berber protesters. The latter were among the hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators in 2016 and 2017 that were ignited by the death of a fishmonger named Mouhcine Fikri. Mahdaoui was arrested while traveling to northern Morocco to cover these protests for “inciting people to participate in an outlawed demonstration.”
Volunteer Dave Heller, deputy director of Media Law Resource Center, was ISLP’s observer at the Istanbul trial of Turkey’s leading media defense lawyer, Veysel Ok. For over a decade specializing in freedom of expression and and press freedom, he had defended scores of Turkish journalists against the Erdogan regime’s crackdown on the media.
Ok is a lawyer who specializes in the law surrounding freedom of expression and the media. Photo Credit: MLSA Media and Law Studies Association
ISLP’s media law working group, led by Winfield, includes Walid Taha, Dave Heller, and about 30 other media law experts. Their trial observation reports will be disseminated to U.S government officials.