(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Minister of the Interior Yazid Zerhouni, RSF protested the arrest of Saad Djaffar, a photographer from the Arabic-language weekly “Mechouar el Ousbou’a”. RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard asked the minister to take measures so that the journalist is released. “Without taking a position on the essence of the case, we […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Minister of the Interior Yazid Zerhouni, RSF protested the arrest of Saad Djaffar, a photographer from the Arabic-language weekly “Mechouar el Ousbou’a”. RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard asked the minister to take measures so that the journalist is released. “Without taking a position on the essence of the case, we recall that in January 2000, Abid Hussain, the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and freedom of expression, asked all governments ‘to ensure that press offences are no longer punishable by prison sentences, except in cases involving racist or discriminatory remarks or calls to violence,'” the secretary-general added. A penal code reform bill which includes provisions for increased prison terms is currently before the Algerian parliament (see IFEX alerts of 25 and 24 April, 15 and 8 March and 22 January 2001).
According to information collected by RSF, on 7 May 2001, Djaffar was placed under a committal order by an Algiers court. His arrest followed the publication of a photograph of a young girl, which accompanied a report on prostitution (in the 25 April edition of “Mechouar el Ousbou’a”). Though the photographer admitted to the court that he had made an error (the young girl in the picture had no connection to the story), the young girl’s family decided to retain their complaint. The weekly’s publication director, editor-in-chief and the author of the article were allowed to go free. The photographer is jailed at the Serkadji prison, awaiting the first hearing of his trial, scheduled for 13 May.
