The government of Morocco has confiscated all copies of the latest editions of the weekly news magazines Telquel and Nichane.

Telquel is the country’s most important French-language independent magazine. Nichane is its Arabic sister publication. The magazines roused the anger of the government by publishing the results of an opinion poll about the Moroccan king, Mohammed VI.

Despite the extremely favourable results – 91 percent of those polled said they were either satisfied or very satisfied with the monarch – conducting such a poll is not considered acceptable by the authorities.

Other subjects forbidden the media include Islam, the army and the occupied Western Sahara.

Moroccan coat of arms from Wikipedia Commons