Repression
At Équipe Média, we document the daily lives of Sahrawis, human rights violations, and the testimonies and situations of political prisoners. However, we do this clandestinely because Morocco criminalizes journalism in Western Sahara.
Repression is constantly evolving and innovating. Morocco employs different methods, some of them very new, such as psychological repression and the defamation of journalists and activists.
All of us are certain that our phones have been infiltrated, and we have verified this on several occasions. As a result, nowadays, we are resorting to medieval methods to circumvent this electronic surveillance.
There are also frequent connection outages, as in Western Sahara, we know that network infrastructure is controlled by Morocco. The homes of known Équipe Média members always experience connection disruptions, especially during significant events.
Impacts
Arbitrary arrests, torture, mistreatment, confiscation of equipment, imprisonment, and defamation. And today, we have colleagues who are imprisoned for doing the same work we continue to do, sentenced to 20 years, 30 years, or even life imprisonment.
How are they protected?
Well, since then, I got involved in activism. When I went to school, I started organizing with young people my age. We were 14 or 15 years old at the time, and we organized ourselves into clandestine cells to run awareness campaigns about gatherings, activities, and so on.
