(CALP/IFEX) – On 20 February 2004, a violent campaign against the independent press was launched in many government-controlled mosques across the country during Friday prayers. Imams issued calls for violence during their sermons in several Algerian cities, including Algiers, where a bitter sermon against the press was even broadcast live on ENTV, the country’s only […]
(CALP/IFEX) – On 20 February 2004, a violent campaign against the independent press was launched in many government-controlled mosques across the country during Friday prayers. Imams issued calls for violence during their sermons in several Algerian cities, including Algiers, where a bitter sermon against the press was even broadcast live on ENTV, the country’s only state-owned television station.
In the 20 February sermons, journalists were accused of displaying a “hostile attitude toward Islam,” being a “source of conflict” for the country and leading the Islamic nation toward “moral loss.” Ali Dilem, a cartoonist from the daily “Liberté”, was targeted by name.
These sermons recall the difficult period during the 1990s when journalists were the target of regular death threats from certain mosques controlled by extremist Islamist groups. These attacks led to the deaths of about 100 journalists and media workers in Algeria over the course of a few years.
According to the daily “El Watan”, in one sermon, an imam reportedly said “the press wants to destroy the one who came to build,” in reference to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and the increasingly serious attacks against him in the country’s major newspapers.
This statement and the planned nature of the campaign against the press lead CALP to believe that it was launched at the government’s initiative. This impression is further reinforced by the fact the government controls the mosques.
