(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the harassment of seven journalists from the daily newspaper “Liberté”, including managing editor Farid Alilat. The journalists were summoned to appear before police detectives on 2 September 2003. “These summonses are part of the authorities’ game involving media debts towards state printing firms,” said Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general. “The […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the harassment of seven journalists from the daily newspaper “Liberté”, including managing editor Farid Alilat. The journalists were summoned to appear before police detectives on 2 September 2003.
“These summonses are part of the authorities’ game involving media debts towards state printing firms,” said Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general. “The regime is obviously annoyed that most indirectly censored, privately-owned newspapers have reappeared [on newsstands] and is looking for new ways to keep pressure on them. Even if ‘Liberté’ is being accused of libel, there is no need for journalists to be interrogated for days at a time by police. This is simply being done to harass them,” he added.
In addition to Alilat, the six others summoned journalists include former managing editor Outoudert Abrous, columnist Mustapha Hammouche, editor Saïd Chekri, cartoonist Ali Dilem and journalists Mourad Belaïdi and Rafik Benkaci. Alilat and three of the paper’s journalists were earlier summoned on 27 and 28 August and interrogated about articles exposing high-level government corruption, going right up to the entourage of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
RSF also notes that Mohammed Benchicou, managing editor of “Le Matin” newspaper, has now been placed under formal investigation. He was summoned by a prosecutor on 26 August after a formal complaint by the Finance Ministry for allegedly violating rules about foreign currency exchange and movement of funds.
Of the six newspapers that were asked on 18 August to immediately repay their debts to the state-owned printing firms, only “L’Expression” and “Er-Raï” were unable to do so and have not reappeared since. “Liberté”, “Le Matin”, “Le Soir d’Algérie” and “El-Khabar”, which have published most of the reports about top-level corruption, have paid their debts and resumed publication.
