TelQuel was founded in 2001 by
Ahmed Benchemsi. It provides news-related articles. The magazine has been repeatedly subjected to harassment and pressures from the Moroccan government. On 1 August 2009, the Moroccan government seized an edition of
TelQuel, following its inclusion of an opinion poll conducted jointly with French newspaper
Le Monde and looking at the performance of King Mohammed VI over the first ten years of his reign. Although 91% viewed his performance favourably, the authorities considered this to be an unsuitable topic for coverage and promptly banned publication of the survey, provoking a furious reaction from the press and Web users.
TelQuel started a
Moroccan Arabic edition,
Nichane. In 2010, however, it went out of business following government pressure on companies to withdraw advertising. ==Editors-in-chief==