Under the editorial line "Morocco As It Is", TelQuel covers monarchy, politics, business and culture and advocates democracy, secularism and individual freedoms.

In December 2010, he quit TelQuel[7] (in order to save it[8] from following Nichane's path, observers[9] said) and left Morocco to the United States.

Since January 2011, he has been a political science researcher at Stanford University and an op-ed writer for international outlets such as Le Monde,[10] Time[11] and The Guardian.

[12] TelQuel's editorial line got Benchemsi in trouble with the Moroccan authorities, which repeatedly prosecuted him in what Reporters Without Borders rebuked as "judicial harassment".

[13] In December 2006, after a cover story titled "How Moroccans Joke about Religion, Sex and Politics",[14] Nichane was banned[14] by decision of Prime Minister[14] Driss Jettou.

Whereas Benchemsi and Nichane staffers received death threats[15] as much as support letters[16] from all over the world, the then editor-in-chief and the author of the controversial article were sued by the government for "damaging Islam".

In August 2009, 100,000 copies of TelQuel and Nichane were seized[22] again and destroyed by the police, this time because it featured an opinion poll[23] on King Mohammed's public record, jointly conducted with the French daily Le Monde.