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JOURNALISTS PARDONED; PRESIDENT URGED TO REFORM DEFAMATION LAWS

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has pardoned all journalists convicted of defamation offences, a move welcomed by local journalists and by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF). However, the organisations say longer term reforms need to be initiated to protect press freedom, including abolishing the country's criminal defamation laws.

On 5 July 2006, Bouteflika announced the pardon on the occasion of Independence Day. While welcoming the move, IFJ and RSF said if legal reforms are not carried out, other journalists can still be charged and sentenced for defamation.

RSF notes that a previous presidential pardon for journalists, announced on World Press Freedom Day on 3 May, did not actually benefit journalists. It applied only to journalists who had been "definitively" convicted, which meant those who had appealed their convictions were excluded.

In the four years since the government enacted amendments to the penal code, which stiffened penalties for defamation, seven journalists have been jailed and 23 others sentenced, note IFJ and RSF. Anyone convicted of defaming the president or a public institution can be jailed for up to one year and fined up to 250,000 dinars (US$3,200).

Faced with the threat of legal action, journalists often censor themselves now when writing about the president and powerful security and military personnel, says the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Mohamed Benchicou, the former managing editor of the newspaper "Le Matin" who faced several defamation suits because of his often critical views of the government, says Bouteflika "must establish press freedom in a structural way and ... stop all this hounding of journalists and the free press."

Defamation laws are not the only impediments to freedom of expression in Algeria. While the country boasts a lively private press, government dominance over broadcasting, economic constraints and journalists' lack of access to official information pose major challenges, says Freedom House. An opaque political system makes it extremely difficult for journalists to obtain accurate information from government officials, a situation that contributes to a lot of inaccurate reporting.

The government also uses subtle tools to control the press, Freedom House says. The government owns the main printing presses and controls the supply of paper and ink. Agence Nationale d'Edition et de Publicité, the state-owned advertising company, is the main source of advertising revenues on which newspapers rely. Papers often run up government debts, giving the authorities a convenient pretext to shut down opposition publications.

Visit these links:
- RSF: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=18201
- Human Rights Watch: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/06/13/algeri13543.htm
- CPJ: http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/mideast/algeria14june06na.html
- Freedom House: http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=16&year=2005&country=6681