Ahmed Benchemsi is a Moroccan journalist. He was the director of TelQuel magazine, an independent French-language weekly with an often critical editorial line towards the Moroccan government. TelQuel and its Arabic edition, Nishan, were repeatedly subjected to harassment and pressure from the government. For his journalism, Benchemsi was sued, interrogated by the police, targeted by death threats, and had thousands of magazine copies destroyed by security forces. He is a recipient of the Samir Kassir Award for independent Middle Eastern journalism, and is a visiting fellow at Newsweek.

About

Hailed by CNN as a “free speech pioneer in Morocco", Benchemsi is the founder of the Kingdom’s two best-selling weeklies, TelQuel (French) and Nishan (Arabic). He served as publisher and editor until late 2010, when he joined Stanford University as a visiting scholar in 2011.

Praised by the Los Angeles Times for their “uncanny ability to set the agenda and push the boundaries of acceptable discourse in Morocco", Benchemsi’s magazines have waded into dangerous territory, covering contemporary slavery, drug trafficking, and reinterpreting the Qur’an; and have also run unprecedented cover stories such as, “The salary of the King", “Inside the secret services," “Exposing the torturers," and more. Most strikingly in a Muslim country, his magazines have published stories on sexual minorities and religious freedom. Consequently, Benchemsi is widely considered a prominent advocate of secularism and minority rights in Middle-East and North Africa.

Investigating these controversial issues has brought Benchemsi into conflict with Moroccan authorities. Despite its success on the newsstand, Nishan was forced into bankruptcy in 2010, after government-led financial pressure. Benchemsi has been prosecuted many times over politically motivated charges, and his magazines was seized, temporarily banned, and condemned to exorbitant fines. This persecution attracted support from American and European human rights and freedom of press watchdogs, as well as international coverage from the BBC, Al Jazeera, The Economist, The Guardian, Le Monde, El Pais and many more.

Ahmed has published op-eds in Le Monde, Le Nouvel Observateur, the Los Angeles Times and Newsweek, where he also completed guest fellowships. He received awards for his journalistic achievements from the European Union and Lebanon’s prestigious Samir Kassir Foundation, notably for his work on the “Cult of personality" surrounding Morocco’s King. Under his supervision, TelQuel and Nishan journalists have received various international awards as well.

Participating in many international conferences in the Middle East, Western Europe, US and India, Benchemsi has shared his views on secularism, political Islam, governance and press freedom. Before founding the “TelQuel Group" in 2001, Benchemsi worked for various media outlets, and served as the Communications adviser for Morocco’s Secretary of State for the Environment.

Ahmed received an M.Phil (French DEA) in political science from Paris’ Institut d’Etudes Politiques, a Masters in Development Economics from La Sorbonne, and his BA in Finance from Paris VIII University.