Recent government crackdowns on local newspapers and magazines prompted the Committee to Protect Journalists to list Morocco among the 10 worst backsliders on media freedom for 2006.

In May, CPJ said said “Morocco joins Tunisia as the Arab world’s leading jailer of journalists, with three sentenced to prison terms.” The report also says authorities banished three top journalists through politically motivated lawsuits. For the whole report, look here.

In the past month alone, the government seized copies of two current affairs magazines based on accusations that articles had offended Muslim sensibilities and showed a lack of respect for the king. Unbowed by the government’s crackdown, both publications were back on newsstands this week, as cheeky and irreverent as ever.

The targeted news magazines – the Arabic-language Nichane (Forthright) and its French-language sister publication TelQuel (As it is) – didn’t pull any punches a week after the warning. TelQuel’s pages opened with a bold headline: “Nichane seized, TelQuel destroyed, Benchemsi charged. What really happened?” The accompanying story is a tick-tock of how government forces confiscated copies of the magazines and brought charges against a manager.

The cover story of TelQuel (think “Newsweek” with more attitude) was a graphic look at sex surgeries, with commentary from a leading “sexologue” from Casablanca, the going rates for operations such as penis or breast enlargements and interviews with Moroccans about their experiences with cosmetic enhancement.

Keep flipping through the magazine and there’s a special section about next month’s elections; the guide informs voters about candidates’ track records on growth, employment, education and other hot topics. The writers poke fun at the ruling party’s attempts to play down the increasing role of political Islam. The TelQuel headline: “Between a swim and a fruit juice, let’s gloss over the Islamists.”

The “world” section discussed the Minneapolis bridge collapse, “Citizen Murdoch” buying the Wall Street Journal and this grim summary of current affairs: “A murdered Iraq, uncertain U.S. elections, a Europe fraught with doubt and an always-troubled Middle East.”

The entertainment section showcased a popular Moroccan rapper named Bigg next to a full-page ad for Belvedere vodka. It also guided readers to “the Moroccan Pearls of YouTube,” with links to videos that ranged from secret footage of local police brutality to voluptuous strippers who had managed to circumvent YouTube’s filter for racy content.

Is it only a matter of time before such lively, politically charged reporting is gone and Moroccans are stuck with the same bland, state-approved news as the rest of the region?