Morocco Withdraws Journalists from Algeria After Mediterranean Games Coverage Blocked

The nine Moroccan reporters (eight editors and one photographer) boarded on Thursday for Tunisia from where they will join Morocco this Saturday, sources from the Moroccan delegation in Algeria told EFE. They had been held since Wednesday on their arrival at Oran airport and their passports were confiscated, one of them confided.

"We were stuck at the airport for 30 hours. They told us that we were not accredited and that they would not let us enter Algerian territory," explained a journalist. The Moroccan National Olympic Committee was responsible for obtaining the accreditations from the Algerian authorities for the nine journalists.

To read: Algeria Bars Moroccan Journalists from Covering Mediterranean Games, Escalating Tensions

The Moroccan Association of Sports Journalists expressed its "great surprise" and indignation on Thursday in a statement at the "incomprehensible and unacceptable" treatment of the Algerian authorities towards the Moroccan reporters who were "officially accredited" to cover this sporting event.

Four other Moroccan journalists from the public television channel 2M, who also arrived on Wednesday at Algiers airport to cover the Mediterranean Games, were allowed to enter Algeria, but without their equipment which was confiscated, as their accreditations would not be in order. The same applies to five other reporters from the Moroccan channel Arryadia.