Moroccan journalist on hunger strike hospitalized after collapse; demands govt lift travel ban

FILE - This Thursday Sept. 17, 2015 file picture shows Moroccan historian and journalist Maati Monjib standing outside the local headquarters of a human rights group in Rabat, Morocco. After a week of being on hunger strike Moroccan journalist and historian, Maati Monjib, was hospitalized Tuesday night. This is Monjib's second hunger strike in a two-month period, in protest of a travel ban. (AP Photo/Paul Schemm, File) (The Associated Press)

RABAT, Morocco – A Moroccan journalist on hunger strike to protest a travel ban has been hospitalized after collapsing.

Maati Monjib, who ran an institute for investigative journalism and was a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, was hospitalized Tuesday after his blood pressure dropped sharply.

He told The Associated Press from Rabat's Ibn Sina Hospital that he wants to enter and leave Morocco freely and demanded an end to the harassment against his family and colleagues, which included being blocked from attending journalism conferences in Barcelona and Norway. He stopped eating on Oct. 6.

The government has said the travel ban against him was imposed during an investigation into "financial irregularities."

A journalism colleague, Hicham Mansouri, was convicted of adultery and imprisoned in March. Many believe it was for his work.