RABAT, Morocco -- Moroccans unable to access the video-sharing Web site YouTube since last week expressed fears Tuesday that the government had stepped up its campaign to restrict independent media.
Moroccan bloggers were surprised to discover they could no longer open YouTube on Friday and promptly launched online forums to speculate about whether the site had been censured.
Najib Omrani, a spokesman for state-controlled Maroc Telecom, which supplies most Internet access in Morocco, blamed the problem on a technical glitch but could not explain its nature or why it affected only the YouTube site.
Government spokesman Nabil Benabdallah said he could not comment on telecommunications issues.
Some Internet users were skeptical that a technical problem was to blame, noting that the site went down after people posted videos critical of Morocco's treatment of the people of Western Sahara, a territory that Morocco took control of in 1975 after Spain, the colonial power, withdrew.
"They've clearly blocked YouTube," said university student Abdelhakim Albarkani, sitting in a Rabat cyber cafe doing his economics homework. "I'm worried because YouTube allowed us to see things the state newspapers and television won't show."
Several countries have blocked access to Youtube this year. The U.S. Defense Department said earlier this month it would begin blocking access "worldwide" to YouTube and other popular Web sites on its computers and networks, citing security concerns and technological limits.
Thailand blocked the site last month because of a video clip deemed offensive to the country's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej. In March, Turkey blocked YouTube for two days after a complaint that some videos insulted Turkey's founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
A Brazilian judge ordered a ban on Youtube in an attempt to stop steamy footage of supermodel Daniela Cicarelli from being viewed, but later reversed the decision. And in Australia, the state of Victoria banned the site from government schools.
Internet use has flourished in Morocco since ADSL became available in 2004. Tech-savvy Moroccans have started blogs and Web sites, and the Internet is now the scene of lively debate on many topics off-limits to the country's mainstream media.
Many bloggers say an upsurge of YouTube videos criticizing Morocco's rule in Western Sahara may have spooked government censors.
A report this month by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists listed Morocco as one of 10 worst backsliders on press freedoms.
In recent years, journalists have been sentenced to prison, heavily fined and sometimes driven into exile for broaching Western Sahara and other subjects.
Moroccan telecommunications authorities have also blocked access to online mapping tool Google Earth for much of 2006 and sites promoting independence for Western Sahara.
"The government should not interfere in free media," said Hicham, a member of a pro-democracy NGO who only gave his first name. "If Morocco is to be a practicing democracy, this sort of thing shouldn't happen."
___
Associated Press Writer Marco Oved in Paris contributed to this report.