The Justice and Development Party, the Islamist ruling party of Morocco, posted a statement on its website on Thursday criticizing the Moroccan Channel One and Channel Two for calling the overthrow of Mohamed Morsy a military coup.
Channel One said Abdel Fattah al-Sisi led a coup that ousted the elected president Mohamed Morsy, suspending the constitution and arresting hundreds of opponents. Channel Two said the army overthrew the legitimate president so Sisi could assume the presidency in elections whose results were settled in advance.
The statement by the Justice and Development Party said this language is new to the editorial policy of the two channels.
King Mohammed VI in 2012 appointed the government of Abdelilah Benkirane, the secretary general of the Justice and Development Party that won the legislative elections at the time.
According to the BBC, the Moroccan party is similar to the ruling party in Turkey that bears the same name.
The Moroccan monarch attended a tea party at the invitation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on 27 December of last year, five days before the channels' comments, according to the website of the Moroccan news agency. Crown Prince Hassan, Princess Lalla Khadija and Princess Lalla Salma also attended with Erdogan, his wife and his daughter.
The agency said this family meeting came on the sidelines of the special visit by the King of Morocco to Turkey.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
