It is a familiar sight in any pub, cafe or train carriage - newspapers being left on seats for others to read, passed from friend to friend, or even handed over to curious strangers.

But in Morocco, the practice has been banned after publishers complained they were losing millions in revenue because people kept sharing them.

Members of the Moroccan Federation of Newspaper Publishers (FMEJ) said the habit of "leaving newspapers behind in public places" was costing their industry $150m each year in lost revenue.

The habit of sharing newspapers, leaving them lying around and generally trying to avoid paying for them was "bleeding the sector," they claimed in an appeal to the Moroccan government.

As a result, the country's communications minster has agreed to ban providing newspapers for free in cafes, as well as lending them.

Mustapha Khalfi said newspaper editors were "suffering" and that the government needed to try and "limit the damage."

"The figures demonstrate just how serious it is," he said in an interview with the Moroccan news website HuffPo Maghreb.

"According to a recent study by the FMEJ, just one in five of us read newspapers."

Mr Khalfi also announced plans to subsidize Morrocco's newspaper industry, as well as the formation of a committee dedicated to persuading his countrymen to buy more newspapers.