(CALP/IFEX) – Ali Dilem, a caricaturist from the daily “Liberté”, was questioned by police on 25 January 2002. The Ministry of National Defence filed a complaint against him following the publication of a caricature in the newspaper’s 29 November 2001 issue. The ministry claims his caricature was “defamatory and prejudicial to senior officials of the […]
(CALP/IFEX) – Ali Dilem, a caricaturist from the daily “Liberté”, was questioned by police on 25 January 2002. The Ministry of National Defence filed a complaint against him following the publication of a caricature in the newspaper’s 29 November 2001 issue. The ministry claims his caricature was “defamatory and prejudicial to senior officials of the military hierarchy”. On 28 January, Salima Tlemçani, a journalist from the daily “El Watan”, was also questioned at police headquarters. This followed her newspaper’s 11 December publication of an investigative report by the journalist in which she disclosed an army officer’s involvement in a scandal involving the misappropriation of a European Union grant originally intended for the housing sector.
The police also summoned Sid Ahmed Semiane (SAS), a columnist from the daily “Le Matin”, for questioning on 29 January. This followed the Ministry of National Defence’s filing of a complaint against him for defamation. Police and judicial sources have announced that the Defence Ministry plans to take legal action against several other journalists for “defamation against the judicial institution and its hierarchy”.
The entire journalism profession is worried about these latest steps by the army. The prosecution of journalists follows threats by the Algerian army’s chief of staff, General Mohamed Lamari. In 2001, the general denounced the “shameless writing, caricatures, outrageous and insane talk against the army.”
General Lamari issued his threats just as the government was preparing the bill revising the penal code and imposing harsher prison sentences and fines against those found guilty of defamation.
