(CALP/IFEX) – On 14 June 2005, Ali Dilem, a cartoonist with the daily “Liberté”, was sentenced to six months in prison and a fine of 250,000 dinars (approx. US$3,400) following a defamation complaint by the National Defence Ministry. The charges against Dilem stem from a 29 November 2001 cartoon in which he dared to poke […]
(CALP/IFEX) – On 14 June 2005, Ali Dilem, a cartoonist with the daily “Liberté”, was sentenced to six months in prison and a fine of 250,000 dinars (approx. US$3,400) following a defamation complaint by the National Defence Ministry.
The charges against Dilem stem from a 29 November 2001 cartoon in which he dared to poke fun at Algerian generals. Abrous Outoudert, the newspaper’s director at the time, was also sentenced to two months in prison and an identical fine. The newspaper was fined 1 million dinars (approx. US$13,700).
Also on 14 June, Kamal Amarni, a journalist with “Le Soir d’Algérie”, received the same penalties as Dilem (six months in prison and a 250,000 dinar fine) for “offending” the head of state. Fouad Boughanem, director of “Le Soir d’Algérie”, was sentenced in the same case to two months in prison and a 250,000 dinar fine. “Le Soir d’Algérie” was also fined 2.5 million dinars (approx. US$34,200). Boughanem had already been sentenced to two months in prison in another case involving an article by Hakim Laâlam, a columnist with the newspaper (see IFEX alerts of 26 and 18 May 2005).
The Information Law of 1990 stipulates that in cases of press offences, the author of the article in question and the head of the publication are legally responsible.
CALP is very worried by the intensification of judicial harassment of Algeria’s independent media. The severity of the prison sentences and fines imposed on the journalists and their publications confirms that previous sentences were not only warning shots or judicial errors, but a well thought-out political choice to suffocate press freedom in Algeria.
CALP reiterates its call for an end to the judicial harassment of journalists and the media and the repeal of the penal code provisions on defamation, which were amended in June 2001.
