An opinion poll on Morocco’s King Mohammed VI carried out by Moroccan magazine TelQuel in collaboration with French daily Le Monde is “illegal”, Morocco’s Minister of Communication Khalid Naciri said in an interview with FRANCE 24 on Monday.

On Sunday, Moroccan authorities seized and destroyed copies of the weekly Telquel magazine and its Arabic version, Nichane. The leading report in both magazines was a poll on the first decade of reign of King Mohammed VI, showing that an overwheming majority of Moroccans have a positive opinion of their monarch.

Referring to an obligation laid out in Morcocco's constitution that “the sacred character of the monarchy must be respected”, Naciri explained “the fact of conducting this type of opinion poll where the pivotal argument is to ask citizens of what they think about what the king has been doing is in itself detrimental to foundation of the monarchy.”

“When you talk about a king, it’s not an elective mandate,” he added.

“A dictatorship breaks into a printing press”

Le Monde’s August 4 edition with the results of the banned poll will not be sold in Morocco on Tuesday. In an editorial published in the same edition, Le Monde labelled the Moroccan regime’s decision absurd.

In a separate interview with FRANCE 24, Le Monde's director Eric Fottorino said he was surprised to see such a reaction from a “friend” country.

“Only a dictatorship breaks into a printing press, evacuates it and seizes newspapers and destroys them without waiting for a legal decision,” Fottorino said.