ALGIERS, 28 April 2005 — Two Algerian journalists appealed yesterday against jail sentences handed down for criticizing the way a public company is run, in the latest libel case brought by authorities against the independent media. Arabic-language newspaper El-Bilad editor Abdelkader Djemaa and one of his reporters were sentenced on Monday to two months in jail for a story that questioned the management of a state restoration company in the eastern city of Annaba.
International human rights groups have condemned a recent spate of libel charges brought by the authorities against journalists. They have urged the government to uphold the freedom of the press in the North African country emerging from more than a decade of Islamic rebel violence.
It was the second time the two El-Bilad reporters were sentenced for the same story - on Monday for defaming the director of the firm and earlier this month for defaming him as a private person. They are free pending appeal. “Our article was based on comments by members of the local council and parliament. Unlike my reporter, I did not receive a notification to attend the hearing but I got a two-month sentence in absentia,” said editor Abdelkader Djemaa.
The government rejects accusations it is targeting the media. “One shouldn’t confuse freedom of the press and defamation,” Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem said on Tuesday. “We are happy to note that Algeria have made advancements in this field (freedom of the press),” he told reporters.
Former President Ahmed Ben Bella weighed in on the debate. In rare comments published in the media yesterday he called for the release of jailed editor Mohamed Benchicou, who was last week denied conditional release on the grounds of poor health. Benchicou is serving a two-year term for illegal transfer of money, a case human rights groups say was a cover to silence him and his newspaper.
Meanwhile, Algerian Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem said yesterday he wanted to step down to concentrate on his job as secretary general of the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN).
Speaking on radio, he said he needed all his time to work at renewing the divided party and building up its grassroots support, but that the decision was up to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the FLN’s honorary chairman.
Belkhadem and Bouteflika were elected to their FLN posts in February at a party congress aimed at resolving a long, bitter row over leadership and policy.
The FLN until the 1980s was the sole ruling party in the North African country after it led a liberation war to win independence from France in 1962, but has been overhauled several times since.
Belkhadem said the party “will work in cooperation with the other political partners in implementing (Bouteflika’s) program for a just and equitable society.”
