"Watch out for this man, he is very thin-skinned!"

Members of Reporters Without Borders demonstrated at the French Alpine ski resort of Courchevel on 23 December, where King Mohammed VI of Morocco was holidaying. They demanded the release of journalist Ali Lmrabet, on the 23rd day of a hunger strike in jail, where he is serving a three-year term. Activists from the international press freedom organisation wearing red tee-shirts handed out leaflets and stuck up posters parodying a magazine cover of the kind that specialises in the life of stars and royal families, with the splash heading : "The King of Morocco, Mohammed VI at Courchevel. Watch out for this man, he is very thin-skinned!" They also put up a banner in front of the tourist office reading, "Release the Journalist Ali Lmrabet". Lmrabet has been on hunger strike since 30 November, taking only sugared water. His family and Reporters Without Borders are very anxious about his state of health, all the more so since no doctor has been allowed to examine him during this time. Further, Lmrabet's prison conditions have deteriorated since the recent official visit to Morocco in October of French President Jacques Chirac. Fellow prison inmates at Salé, Rabat, have been threatened with disciplinary action if they speak to Lmbaret, who, as his brother pointed out, finds himself as a result "in a prison within a prison". Lmrabet, editor in chief of two satirical publications, Demain magazine and Doumane, was sentenced by a court in Rabat on 21 May to four years in prison for "insulting the king's person", "threatening the integrity of the national territory" and "undermining the monarchy". His sentence was reduced to three years on appeal on 17 June.