Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06ALGIERS2087
2006-12-09 06:08:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Algiers
Cable title:  

HOW FREE IS ALGERIA'S PRINTED PRESS?

Tags:  PHUM PGOV KPAO AG 
pdf how-to read a cable
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ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 090608Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY ALGIERS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2488
INFO RUEHBS/AMEMBASSY BRUSSELS 2206
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO 0823
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 1450
RUEHNK/AMEMBASSY NOUAKCHOTT 5872
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 2012
RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT 1533
RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS 6387
RUEHCL/AMCONSUL CASABLANCA 2803
C O N F I D E N T I A L ALGIERS 002087 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/08/2016
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KPAO AG
SUBJECT: HOW FREE IS ALGERIA'S PRINTED PRESS?

REF: ALGIERS 1940

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, a.i. Thomas F. Daughton
for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L ALGIERS 002087

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/08/2016
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KPAO AG
SUBJECT: HOW FREE IS ALGERIA'S PRINTED PRESS?

REF: ALGIERS 1940

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, a.i. Thomas F. Daughton
for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) SUMMARY: The Algerian government exerts pressure on
Algeria's independent printed media with the aim of
encouraging self-censorship. Government tactics have
included using the state advertising agency to reward or
punish papers financially; miring journalists in lengthy
legal proceedings; incarcerating and bankrupting journalists
on crimes other than defamation; and, in a recent case,
convicting a journalist and an editor of defamation for
reporting a story that is widely believed to be accurate and
factual. In spite of this pressure, Algeria's printed press
continues to be one of the freest in the Arab world. Strong
criticism of government policy and biting editorials and
editorial cartoons appear daily in print and the government
appears to have dropped at least one case against a
journalist in response to a public outcry from the
independent media. End Summary.

Quiet Pressure
--------------


2. (C) Khaled Bourayou, a prominent Algerian attorney who has
defended many journalists charged with defamation, told us
November 20 that Algeria's independent press faces increasing
government pressure to censor itself. (Note: The government
owns all broadcast media outlets, so the independent press is
all printed. End note.) Algerian journalists, Bourayou
noted, do not have the same legal and constitutional
protections as journalists in the U.S. or Europe. Among
other things, he noted, the Algerian constitution does not
guarantee a journalist's right to demand information from the
government.


3. (C) Several journalists have also told us that the
government applies economic pressure on the independent press
through the Agence Nationale d'Edition et de Publicite
(ANEP),the government advertising company for state-owned
enterprises. ANEP advertising is the largest source of
revenue for smaller independent newspapers, and the
government can reduce revenues to papers with whose reporting
it disagrees. The government also controls the four main
printing presses on which most independent newspapers are

produced.


4. (C) COMMENT: The growth of private-sector companies in
Algeria appears to be circumscribing ANEP's influence over
the independent papers. Bigger dailies (and those read by
wealthy expatriates) are able to sell advertising space to
these new companies instead of to ANEP. Additionally, El
Watan, El Khabar (the nation's largest daily) and Quotidien
d'Oran all own their own printing press, giving them more
freedom from indirect government pressure. End Comment.

Using the Courts
--------------


5. (C) When the mechanisms of indirect influence fail,
Embassy contacts say, the government uses more direct tactics
to exert control. During a November 14 call on the
independent daily El Watan, journalist Faical Metamoui told
us that the GOA was increasing its use of those tactics.
Metamoui cited three examples: the government's pursuit,
according to Metamoui, of prosecution of nearly 200
journalists for defamation; the recent conviction of the
editor-in-chief and a journalist at Echourouk Al Youmi for
defaming Libyan President Qadhafi (reftel); and the GOA's
confiscation of free-lance journalist Arezki Ait-Larbi's
passport for an alleged defamation conviction in 1994.


6. (C) Metamoui described President Bouteflika's July 5
pardon of all outstanding defamation convictions as a
politically savvy way for the GOA to keep up its pressure on
journalists while avoiding accusations of human rights
violations for imprisoning them. The pardon did not include
a grant of amnesty for journalists facing ongoing legal
proceedings for criminal defamation, and Metamoui says the
GOA is using the proceedings as a tool to harass the
journalists. As he described the process, journalists
charged with defamation are ordered to appear before a judge.
The judge does not try the case, instead issuing continuance
after continuance and forcing the journalist to return to
court again and again. One defamation case involving El
Watan's Salima Tlemcani dragged on in that fashion for two
years. Metamoui said the GOA uses the technique to mire
journalists in drawn-out and costly legal proceedings while
still being able to tell the world that Algeria is not
imprisoning journalists for defamation.


7. (C) Attorney Bourayou agreed that defamation proceedings
are deliberately drawn out to harass journalists. He noted
that when the GAO wants a case to progress, it moves through
the courts quickly. To underscore the point he told us that
a large number of drawn-out cases had been suddenly rushed to
judgment in advance of Bouteflika's July 5 pardon. Both
Bourayou and Metamoui cited the recent Echourouk Al Youmi and
Ait-Larbi cases as additional examples of how the government
manipulates the Algerian judicial system to keep the
independent media docile.

No Clear Definition for Defamation
--------------


8. (C) In 2001, the Penal Code was amended to criminalize
speech, writing and cartoons that insult or offend the
president, parliament, judiciary or armed forces. In the
Echourouk Al Youmi defamation case, the magistrate extended
that protection to a foreign head of state, Libyan leader
Moammar Qadhafi. Ali Oufek, editor of the French-language
daily Liberte, told us this was the first time the law was
applied in this manner. (COMMENT: The main concern in the
Echourouk case is that the editor and journalist were
convicted of defamation for reporting what is believed to be
factual and accurate information. Journalists are seeing the
case as a signal that the GOA will prosecute critics based on
whether a story offends or insults public officials
regardless of the accuracy of the story. Because "offends"
and "insults" are not defined, this practice could have a
chilling effect on the media's ability to hold public figures
accountable. End Comment.) Bourayou believes the conviction
was a diplomatic sop to the Libyan government, whose foreign
minister was in Algiers on the day of the trial. Several
legal experts have predicted that the conviction will be
overturned on appeal.

GOA Responds to Public Pressure
--------------


9. (U) In response to public pressure, the government
recently reversed itself on a defamation case involving the
Algerian freelance journalist Arezki Ait-Larbi. In May,
officials confiscated Ait-Larbi's passport when he attempted
to renew it because, he was told, a warrant for his arrest
had been issued in connection with an alleged August 1997
conviction for defamation. The in absentia conviction, for
which Ait-Larbi was sentenced to six months in prison,
concerned a 1994 article he wrote claiming inmates in Lambese
prison had been tortured. Ait-Larbi maintains he was not
informed of the conviction before he attempted to renew his
passport in May and that he had successfully renewed his
passport previously in July 2000. Algerian journalists
reacted strongly to the case against him, signing a public
petition denouncing the government's actions and pointing out
that even if Ait-Larbi had been convicted in 1997, he should
have benefited from the July 5 pardon that expunged all
defamation convictions. In an apparent response to the
outcry, the government renewed and returned Ait-Larbi's
passport to him November 16.

The Nuclear Option
--------------


10. (C) Embassy contacts say that the 2004 prosecution of
Mohamed Benchicou most influences journalists to self-censor.
Benchicou, editor-in-chief of the now-defunct Algerian daily
Le Matin, was extremely critical of the government and
President Bouteflika. In August 2003, he was charged with
currency control violations. In February 2004 he published
"Bouteflika, an Algerian Imposter," an article denouncing
official corruption under Bouteflika's presidency. At his
June 2004 trial on the currency charges, he was convicted and
sentenced to an unusually harsh two years in prison. As a
result, Le Matin was hit with large tax penalties and forced
into insolvency. Despite the fact that Benchicou was never
charged with defamation, his supporters in Algeria and
international NGOs like the Committee to Protect Journalists
maintain that he was imprisoned as punishment for his
criticism of Bouteflika's government. And no one, based on
our conversations, wants to be the next Benchicou.

COMMENT
--------------


11. (C) In spite of the various tools at the disposal of the
government to pressure the media into not offending powerful
people, the Algerian printed press continues to be one of the
freest in the Middle East and North Africa. Vociferous
criticism of government policy and biting editorial cartoons
appear daily in print. Foreign and justice ministry
officials tell us that criticism of government policies and
proposals is fair game for journalists, provided that they do
not cross the line and impugn the character of an individual.
The problem is that there is no clear demarcation as to
where criticism ends and defamation begins. The government
leaves it to the courts to decide where to draw the line.
That uncertainty leads some journalists to self-censor and
avoid the risk of challenging the line in court.
DAUGHTON