(RSF/IFEX) – On 19 April 2002, RSF urged the European Union (EU) to call attention to a human rights clause contained in an agreement formally associating Algeria and the EU. The agreement is due to be signed shortly. “This clause is a vital part of the agreement and its presence has up to now been […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On 19 April 2002, RSF urged the European Union (EU) to call attention to a human rights clause contained in an agreement formally associating Algeria and the EU. The agreement is due to be signed shortly. “This clause is a vital part of the agreement and its presence has up to now been ignored in similar accords with Tunisia and Israel, both countries that were recently criticised for human rights violations,” RSF said in a letter to Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique, who will sign the Algeria agreement for the EU on 22 April.
RSF asked him to use the clause “to pressure the Algerian authorities … to pledge that press freedom will be respected.” This would mean ending all forms of harassment of journalists, conducting and publishing the results of investigations into police brutality against journalists or their disappearance, further amending the criminal code concerning the media and ending the arbitrary handling of applications to launch new publications.
RSF described the media situation in the country, recalling that the Algerian parliament amended the penal code in May 2001 to increase punishments and fines for defamation in the media (see IFEX alerts of 11 July, 19 June, 31 and 22 May, 25 and 24 April, 15 and 8 March and 22 January 2001). This was followed by numerous lawsuits against journalists from privately-owned media.
Many journalists were questioned by police in the first four months of 2002 following complaints by the defence ministry about alleged defamation. These included a cartoonist, Ali Dilem, who was questioned on 25 January about a cartoon poking fun at the army. The cartoon appeared in the French-language newspaper “Liberté” in November. The ministry considered it “defamatory and an affront to the dignity of senior military figures” (see alerts of 25 February and 30 January 2002).
During demonstrations held in 2001, journalists were often threatened, physically attacked or had their equipment seized. On 13 March 2002, Lotfi Bouchouchi, a correspondent in Algeria for the French TV station TF1, was seriously injured in Tizi-Ouzou by a tear-gas grenade fired by police while he was asking people in the street for their thoughts about a speech President Abdelaziz Bouteflika had just delivered. He was hit by the grenade even though he was not in the crowd of demonstrators and was clearly identifiable as press.
The Arabic-language weekly “El-Mouaad el-Djazairi”‘s 26 November 2001 issue was withdrawn from newsstands and the newspaper has not appeared since then (see alert of 30 November 2001). Several media owners have been unable to get permission to launch new publications, but the granting of some permits suggests the government is picking and choosing which to allow.
Four years ago, almost to the day, Aziz Bouabdallah, a journalist from the Arabic-language daily “El-Alam es-Siyassi”, disappeared in Algiers (see alerts of 5 February and 8 January 2001, 6 May 1999, 28 July, 25 and 18 April 1997). This followed the disappearance of four other journalists: Mohammed Hassaine, Kaddour Bousselham, Djamil Fahassi and Salah Kitouni (see alerts of 5 February and 8 January 2001). After an on-site inquiry in January 2001, RSF concluded that the state security services were responsible for the disappearance of three journalists, including Bouabdallah. Since the first journalist disappeared in 1995, the authorities have made no serious investigation into the cases.
