(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a CPJ letter to Algerian President Liamine Zeroual expressing concern about ongoing government restrictions on foreign journalists who report from Algeria. In addition, attached as an appendix is the text of CPJ’s 9 April 1999 briefing on Algerian government restrictions on the foreign media: BY FACSIMILE April 9, 1999 His […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a CPJ letter to Algerian President Liamine
Zeroual expressing concern about ongoing government restrictions on foreign
journalists who report from Algeria. In addition, attached as an appendix is
the text of CPJ’s 9 April 1999
briefing on Algerian government restrictions on the foreign media:
BY FACSIMILE
April 9, 1999
His Excellency Liamine Zeroual
President of the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria
c/o His Excellency Ambassador Lamamra Remtane
Embassy of Algeria
2118 Kalorama Rd., N.W.
Washington, DC 20008
Your Excellency:
On the occasion of Algeria’s upcoming presidential election next week, as
the international media prepare to cover events inside the country, the
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), writes to express deep concern about
ongoing government restrictions on foreign journalists who report from
Algeria.
For several years, CPJ has documented continued government strictures on the
freedom of movement of foreign reporters inside Algeria. Algerian
authorities have systematically enforced a policy of providing mandatory
armed government escorts for foreign reporters – a policy which has severely
curtailed the ability of journalists to carry out their work.
Reporters have consistently noted that the presence of escorts, who
accompany reporters to all destinations outside of their hotels, prevents
them from conducting serious investigative journalism in Algeria, including
carrying out sensitive interviews and meeting with opposition figures. CPJ
views such limitations on the press as clear infringements on the
universally accepted right of journalists to “seek, receive, and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers,” as
guaranteed by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Algerian government has asserted that security escorts for foreign
journalists are essential for their protection. Indeed, during the first
half of the decade, Algeria was the most dangerous country in the world to
practice journalism. CPJ has documented that 58 reporters and editors were
killed by suspected Islamist militants between 1993-1996. Yet the Algerian
government has asserted in recent years that the country’s security
situation has improved markedly, and that “terrorism” has become a
“residual” phenomenon.
Foreign reporters who travel to Algeria increasingly describe mandatory
security escorts as a mechanism of government control – to monitor and
restrict the reporting and movements of journalists – rather than a means of
protection.
In April 1998, former Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia, in an address to the
Algerian senate, rejected complaints that foreign journalists were being
prevented from doing their work, saying “We have nothing to hide.” One month
earlier, in March 1998, a delegation from the Paris-based World Association
of Newspapers had secured unequivocal pledges from former Communications and
Culture Minister Habib Chawki Hamraoui that foreign journalists would be
able to refuse armed escorts within a matter of “weeks or months.” To date,
this pledge has not been fulfilled, and foreign reporters continue to chafe
under
restrictions on their movement. Most recently, on October 27, 1998,
representatives from CPJ raised our concern about this issue during a
meeting with former minister Hamraoui in Algiers, urging the government to
end its restrictions on the foreign press.
During that meeting we also raised our concern about the difficulties
foreign journalists have experienced in obtaining journalist visas to work
in Algeria. In numerous cases documented by CPJ, journalists have gone
months, and in some cases years, without receiving a reply to their
individual visa requests. Some believe that they have been “blacklisted” by
authorities in response to what has been deemed the journalists’ unfavorable
coverage of Algerian affairs. Others, who have no reason to suspect
government reprisal, are unable to explain why they have not secured visas.
Unfettered access for journalists is essential for the functioning of a free
press. While we acknowledge the Algerian government’s stated concerns for
the protection and safety of journalists in Algeria, we also believe that,
as professionals, journalists are entitled to make judgments about the risks
involved in a particular journalistic mission and should be able to decide
whether or not they require security or protection for such purposes.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, a non-governmental organization of
journalists devoted to upholding the rights of our colleagues worldwide,
respectfully urges the Algerian government to end its restrictions on
foreign journalists working in Algeria, including the use of mandatory
escorts, and to ensure the right of journalists to carry out their
professional duties freely without government interference. We also urge the
Algerian government to facilitate the visa process for journalists wishing
to work in Algeria, and to ensure that no journalist is denied access on the
basis of his or her
journalistic work.
Thank you for your attention to these important matters. We look forward to
a reply at your earliest convenience.
Sincerely,
Ann K. Cooper
Executive Director
cc: His Excellency Smail Hamdani, Prime Minister
His Excellency Abdelmalek Sellal, Interior Minister
His Excellency Ambassador Lamamra Remtane
Newspaper Association of America
American Society of Newspaper Editors
Amnesty International
ARTICLE 19
Freedom House
Human Rights Watch
Index on Censorship
International Association of Broadcasting
International Federation of Journalists
International Federation of Newspaper Publishers
International Journalism Institute
International PEN
International Press Institute
National Association of Black Journalists
National Press Club
The Newspaper Guild
North American National Broadcasters Association
Reporters sans Frontieres
Overseas Press Club
The Society of Professional Journalists
World Press Freedom Committee
Appendix
April 9, 1999
CPJ BRIEFING: ALGERIA
Government Restrictions on the Foreign Media
Since political violence erupted in 1992, Algeria has been one of the most
difficult countries in the world for foreign journalists to work. For
several years, Algerian authorities have enforced a policy of providing
mandatory escorts for foreign reporters, thus severely curtailing the
ability to effectively investigative the country’s ongoing civil war.
Reporters note that the presence of escorts, among other things, has
prevented them from conducting sensitive interviews and meeting with
opposition figures. The government’s ongoing restrictions on the foreign
press, coupled with the absence of foreign news outlets in the country –
only Agence France-Presse maintains a bureau in
Algiers – have contributed to the dearth of detailed information about the
Algerian conflict. In 1998, the BBC noted that the lack of on the ground
reporting “has made it increasingly difficult to know what is going on
inside Algeria. News organizations are forced to take unconfirmed reports
from Algerian newspapers at face value, even if they do it with a touch of
skepticism.”
The Algerian government has asserted that security escorts are essential for
foreign journalists’ protection. Indeed, during the first half of the
decade, Algeria was the most dangerous country in the world to practice
journalism. CPJ has documented that 58 reporters and editors were killed by
suspected militants between 1993-1996. Yet by the government’s own accounts,
in recent years the country’s security situation has improved markedly,
asserting that “terrorism” has become a “residual” phenomenon. Foreign
reporters who travel to Algeria increasingly describe mandatory security
escorts as a mechanism of government control-to monitor and restrict the
reporting and movements of journalists-rather than a means of protection.
In April 1998, then-Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia, in an address to the
Algerian senate, rejected complaints that the work of foreign journalists
was being impeded in Algeria, saying “We have nothing to hide.” One month
earlier, in March 1998, a delegation from the Paris-based World Association
of Newspapers had secured unequivocal pledges from former Communications
Minister Habib Chawki Hamraoui that foreign journalists would be able to
refuse armed escorts within a matter of “weeks or months.” To date, this
pledge has not been fulfilled and foreign reporters continue to chafe under
restrictions on their movement.
The following are excerpts taken from CPJ interviews with foreign
correspondents who have worked in Algeria and from press reports filed by
journalists reporting from the country. They describe, up close, some of the
restrictions that foreign correspondents face on the ground in Algeria.
Additional comments from reporters will be updated on CPJ’s website at
www.cpj.org
The Journalists Speak
“Our CNN team got the message when we arrived at Algiers airport last
October. We were met by a neatly dressed man named Khaled who welcomed us
politely. He was one of our ‘guides,’ he said…He sure was. Khaled was at
the elevator when we got up each morning, with us all day and evening, and
at the elevator when we went to bed.
“Whenever we traveled outside the hotel, Khaled was joined by a team of
several others with bulging waistlines…At least two vehicles were with us
at all times. And moving around town was a circus. Khaled insisted on
checking out first even the pastry stores we visited – and the coffee shops.
I’ve been in many troubled countries over many years, but never have I been
so rigorously ‘protected.’ Now there are clearly risks in Algeria: The civil
war has been terribly brutal. But in fact we discovered that Algiers’
reputation as the most dangerous city in the world was probably no longer
deserved.
“We endeavored to talk with the outlawed Muslim political organizations. We
would arrange interviews by phone and then take off in our convoy, but we
never did reach our destinations. Our guides just couldn’t find those
addresses, it seems, no matter how hard they searched…It was clearly
censorship by access denied.”
– Peter Arnett of CNN on his investigative trip to Algeria in October 1998.
“I’d been given a minder and clashed vigorously with the Ministry of
Information people. At the beginning, we were holed in one of the hotels and
denied from going to the St. George Hotel. I couldn’t go out when I wanted.
I had tried to meet with opposition political parties but couldn’t.
“We were severely limited, curtailed in our movements to report freely. It
was explained as essential for our protection. There were many organized
trips and we were limited in our ability to talk to people…You could go
out individually, but with two or three people [escorts]…Once we went up
to the [Kabyle region]. It was ludicrous. We went with an armed escort and a
truck of soldiers. I thought it was largely overblown…One was
circumscribed in his reporting.”
– Roger Cohen, correspondent for The New York Times, describing conditions
during his trip to Algeria in late 1996
“Any real enterprise reporting in Algeria into the truly pressing issues of
the last decade is virtually impossible. They still assign bodyguards to you
when you leave the hotel. It’s impossible to leave the hotel without them.
“When I was there, a BBC and French reporter ‘escaped.’ From the reaction of
the security people, you would have thought there was a prison break. You
can conclude that their concern is hardly to protect you but to control you.
Their real purpose is to see where you go. It has an inhibiting effect. You
can’t meet with Islamists who are in jail or under house arrest. But there
are others who are not under house arrest or in jail-they are in this sort
of gray zone. But of course they don’t want to see you if you arrive at
their door with four armed guards.
“We were allowed to go into the Triangle of Death…to Bentalha, Rais, and a
third place. We were sent with four Land Cruisers with the gendarme
nationale, who have a hugely inhibiting effect on people you talk to. We
spent two to three hours there. The people [in the villages] talk about how
they were attacked by terrorists, but they decline to give any details. We
turned back to Algiers realizing that we weren’t going to get anything. They
[the people] had a pretty good idea [of who attacked them] but weren’t going
to say anything with these goons present.”
– A foreign correspondent describing a recent trip to Algeria
“Getting the visa is not the main point. If you have a visa, then you are
forced to stay in a hotel and cannot leave without police protection. You
cannot move freely. For those with a visa it is impossible to move freely.
But I had accreditation and could move around freely. Many times in the past
when I had a visa, I left the country because there was no way you could
work. No one can work when you are locked up in a hotel. If you have an
appointment scheduled, you might wait two to three hours in the hotel until
your escorts arrange a car. They force you to fight for a visa and then,
finally, when you get there it’s
[not worth it] since you can’t do your work.”
– Enrique Cerveto, correspondent for the Spanish daily ABC
“The government only allows foreign journalists to visit Bentalha under
heavy escort. Soldiers, their walkie-talkies spitting static, spread out in
the dusty, unpaved alleys of the cinder block village… The hotel was
basically an armed camp. You couldn’t walk down the street. You could only
leave in a taxi. And you had three armed guards in a car behind you. It’s
terrible to say it, but they organized basically what amounted to tours of
the massacre sites. When we went that day to Bentalha, we also visited, as
it appears in that story, a cemetery. We were in two minivans which were
painted with the words “Touring Club of Algiers.” And you can imagine
getting out of a minivan like this while people are mourning their dead. It
was the most surreal reporting experience I’ve ever had.”
– National Public Radio correspondent Sarah Chayes reporting for the program
“Weekly Edition,” January 17, 1998
“It was preposterous in terms of reporting.”
– A U.S. reporter describing armed escorts who accompanied journalists to
massacre sites in June 1997
“I didn’t feel monitored especially [when doing interviews], but it was
impossible to go anywhere on my own.”
– A U.S. journalist who visited Algeria in 1998
“We were given Ministry of Interior ‘minders,’ which they use to keep tabs
on foreign journalists. I’d love to go again, but I hear that the
authorities often refuse to grant visas to those who’ve written about them
in a less than glowing fashion. The government doesn’t want people like us
there for very long, so they probably only give out limited stay visas.”
– A European journalist who reported from Algiers in 1998
“Security for the foreign journalists arriving in the capital is so heavy as
to make the threat almost abstract. Armed plainclothes police grab you at
the airport before you have even walked from the aircraft to the terminal
building, escorting you to a hotel ringed by soldiers and gendarmes. The
escort remains with you whatever your destination. Even a journey out of the
building to buy some cigarettes involves a three-man guard riding shotgun.
The police and their pistols are replaced by a posse of soldiers with
assault rifles for a trip to the entrance of the Casbah, a hotbed of GIA
support whose centre seems lost even to the army. The chance for spontaneous
interviews is diluted to say the least.”
– Anthony Loyd writing in the Times of London, October 25, 1997
Difficulties in Obtaining Visas
Over the years, foreign journalists have faced considerable difficulty in
securing visas to report from Algeria. In several cases, journalists have
gone months – sometimes years -without receiving a reply to their individual
visa requests. Some believe that they have been blacklisted by authorities
in response to what they have deem as the journalists’ unfavorable coverage
of Algerian affairs. Others, who have no reason to suspect government
reprisal, are at a loss to explain why they have been prevented from
obtaining a journalist visa. The following are recently documented cases of
journalists who have been unable to secure visas for work in Algeria. A
number of other journalists, who currently have visa requests pending with
the Algerian government to cover the April 15 presidential elections,
declined to have their names made public for fear of jeopardizing the
outcome. In two of these cases, the journalists have failed to receive
replies from the Algerian government to their numerous visa requests over
the span of several months. Additional cases of journalists who have been
unable to obtain visas to report from Algeria will be updated on CPJ’s
website at www.cpj.org
José Garçon, Libération
Garçon, who has covered Algeria for more than ten years for the
French-language daily Libération, was unable to obtain a visa from the
Algerian government between 1993 and 1997 despite repeated requests. All of
her requests went unanswered, leading the journalist to abandon future
attempts. In 1997, authorities formally denied her a visa without
explanation when she had requested to travel to Algiers with a French
politician.
Roger Cohen, The New York Times
Cohen, a foreign correspondent for The New York Times who has covered
Algeria in
recent years, was unable to obtain a visa in 1997 despite persistent
attempts. Cohen had reported from Algiers in late 1996, and applied for
another visa in 1997. He received no reply from the Algerian government. “I
did hear from diplomats that the Algerian government was not keen on letting
me in,” said Cohen. Cohen suspects that a story he wrote in December 1996
about the country’s political situation and its gas and oil production in
the southern desert (“State of Fear: In Algeria, Oil and Islam Make a
Volatile Mixture” The New York Times, December 28, 1996) was the reason.
Enrique Cerveto, ABC
Cerveto, a correspondent for the Spanish daily ABC who is based in Rabat,
has not secured a visa to report from Algeria since November 1998. In late
1998, he attempted to return and was told by the Ministry of Information
that he could not return to Algeria, even as a tourist. No explanation was
given, and Cerveto, despite being one of the few foreign journalists to have
accreditation in Algeria, was prevented from entering the country. According
to Cerveto, Algerian officials later told him privately that the reason he
was denied was because he had written articles critical of President Liamine
Zeroual’s former adviser, Muhammad Betchine. Cerveto currently has another
visa request pending with the Algerian government.
Recommended Action
Similar appeals can be sent to:
Appeals To
His Excellency Liamine Zeroual
President of the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria
c/o His Excellency Ambassador Lamamra Remtane
Embassy of Algeria
2118 Kalorama Rd., N.W.
Washington, DC 20008
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
