(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the six-month prison sentence for libel against journalist Sid Ahmed Semiane (better known by the pseudonym “S.A.S.”) and said it is alarmed over the Algerian government’s continuing harassment of the independent press. On 4 November 2003, a court in the Sidi M’hammed suburb of Algiers sentenced “S.A.S.” in absentia. The […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the six-month prison sentence for libel against journalist Sid Ahmed Semiane (better known by the pseudonym “S.A.S.”) and said it is alarmed over the Algerian government’s continuing harassment of the independent press.
On 4 November 2003, a court in the Sidi M’hammed suburb of Algiers sentenced “S.A.S.” in absentia. The Defence Ministry had filed complaints against the journalist, who previously wrote for the daily “Le Matin” and currently lives in Paris. The court also fined the paper’s managing editor, Mohamed Benchicou, 100,000 dinars (approx. US$1,450; 1,230 euros). The newspaper itself was fined another 200,000 dinars (approx. US$2,900; 2,460 euros).
The same day, amid great publicity, an Algiers court handed Farid Alilat, managing editor of the daily “Liberté”, a four-month suspended prison sentence and fined him 100,000 dinars for “insulting the head of state”. One of the paper’s journalists, Rafik Hamou, was also fined 100,000 dinars.
“Liberté” itself was fined two million dinars (approx. US$29,000; 24,700 euros) under Article 144b of the amended Criminal Code for running a front-page headline on 11 August that read, “All of them are thieves”. The headline accompanied a story reprinted from the daily “El Khabar”, which said top government officials had misappropriated housing belonging to the Foreign Ministry.
The sentencing of “S.A.S.” comes amid increasing harassment of the press, with more than 20 independent journalists summoned by the authorities since September. The case also highlights the privately-owned press’ current malaise since, with the exception of “Le Quotidien d’Oran”, the media have not reported on it, perhaps because it involves a complaint by the army rather than the presidency.