The World Fellows

Aboubakr Jamaï is publisher of Morocco's leading business newspaper, Le Journal Hebdomadaire and its sister publication, Assahifa al-Ousbouiya. His papers have tackled tough topics such as government corruption, corporate impropriety, and other taboo political subjects in Morocco. Jamaï began his career in finance, co-founding Morocco's first independent investment bank in 1993. After two years advising international emerging market funds with holdings in North Africa, the company, Upline Securities, became the first Moroccan-based bank ever selected to manage a privatization project in Morocco. Jamaï's foray into journalism came in 1995, when he began writing a column on the relationship between international financial markets and the Moroccan financial market for a weekly economic newspaper. Le Journal won the prestigious International Press Freedom Award in 2003 for its investigative journalism.

Post-Fellowship:

Jamaï and Le Journal Hebdomadaire were featured in a major story in the October 16, 2006 issue of The New Yorker. The story described Jamaï’s fight for democracy and freedom of the press. Due to the intense controversy, Le Journal was temporarily shut down, and Jamaï staged a hunger strike. He is now a degree candidate at the the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.