The criminal court in Casablanca sentenced Mohamed Bousfiha, the host of the Momo Morning Show broadcast on Hit Radio, known as Momo, to four months imprisonment on Tuesday.
The court also sentenced two individuals involved in what was found to have been a “staged theft” to five and three months imprisonment, respectively.
The two individuals also faced charges of “false denunciation” and “insult to a constituted body.” Momo was initially released on a bond of 100,000 MAD. He was accused of “spreading false information” and “defamation.”
The “Momo affair” originated on March 21 when a listener of Bousfiha’s “Momo Ramadan Show” concocted a fake theft scenario during a call with the radio station.
The caller, who was using a false identity, later phoned back the radio station claiming and detailing the theft of a mobile phone and suggesting that security services had been negligent.
Momo provided the caller with another phone, attributing the theft to the call with the show.
Authorities suspect the caller’s motive was personal gain and to boost the radio station’s audience. Police services summoned Momo to question him regarding the alleged theft, while the two others were arrested.
Morocco’s licensing regulator, the High Authority for Audiovisual Communication (HACA) has called for safeguarding citizens’ rights to “vigilant and trustworthy media content.”