Judges urged to protect independent journalists as government makes no move to decriminalize press offences

Reporters Without Borders
Press release

Judges urged to protect independent journalists as government makes no move to decriminalize press offences

29 May 2007

Reporters Without Borders voiced outrage today at the two-month prison sentences imposed on two El Watan journalists in a libel case on 27 May and said it was concerned about the verdict that is due to be issued by an Algiers criminal court tomorrow in the case of Arezki Aït-Larbi, the correspondent of several international news media.

“Algeria’s journalists will always work under the threat of being thrown in prison until press offences are decriminalized, and since the highest authorities continue to drag their heels on amending the law, we appeal to judges handling press cases to display courage and independence by protecting journalists and reestablishing the right to news and information.”

The two El Watan journalists sentenced to two months in prison were editor Omar Belhouchet and reporter Chawki Amari, who were also fined 1 million dinars (10,635 euros). They immediately appealed against the verdict.

The case was a retrial of one held before a court in Jijel, 360 km east of Algiers last December, when they received three-month sentences for libelling and insulting the city’s prefect in an article a few months earlier accusing him of corruption. They were able to get retrial because the original trial was held in their absence and without their knowledge, and they were not even notified of the prefect’s suit.

Their lawyer, Zoubeir Soudani, told Reporters Without Borders the case continued to suffer from procedural irregularities. He also deplored a recent supreme court decision that allows plaintiffs who are suing newspapers to present their suit at the place of distribution as well as the place of publication.

Jamal Belkadi, one of El Watan’s correspondents in Constantine, 290 km east of Algiers, was manhandled by the head of the prefect’s security department while taking photos at the scene of a bombing on 16 May. His camera was confiscated and returned two days later. To his surprise, he was summoned to the prefect’s office and was notified that he is being investigated for “crossing a security perimeter.” He is due to appear before a judge soon. Other journalists present at the scene of the bombing had no problems.

The case involving Aït-Larbi, the correspondent of the French dailies Le Figaro and Ouest-France, is also retrial of one held in his absence and without his knowledge. It concerns a libel suit brought by a prison governor whom he accused of mistreating detainees in a 1994 article. Aït-Larbi did not discover that he had been convicted until May 2006, when he applied for a new passport and his request was initially refused. In April of this year, he found himself being arrested at Algiers airport under a warrant issued in 1997.