EL KHABAR JOURNALIST INTERROGATED ABOUT THE

C O N F I D E N T I A L ALGIERS 000576 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/01/2016 TAGS: PTER KDEM PHUM AG SUBJECT: EL KHABAR JOURNALIST INTERROGATED ABOUT THE SOURCES OF HIS ARTICLES ON THE GSPC Classified By: Ambassador Richard W. Erdman, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (U) Algeria's leading Arabic-language daily, El Khabar, claimed in April 1 that its reporter Mohamed Mourad, the author of two articles published March 27 and 29 on the dissemination of leaflets by the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC),was questioned March 30 at an Algerian police station in a "humiliating manner" and asked to reveal his sources for the articles. According to El Khabar's April 1 story, Mourad was subjected to an interrogation during which the police employed "every provocative means," including "threats and physical and psychological intimidation," against him. The newspaper did not allege that any physical force was used against Mourad in the police attempts to obtain information from him. ¶2. (SBU) According to a colleague at El Khabar contacted by post, the police questioned Mourad about an internal police memorandum he received from a friend. Mourad was questioned after his friend, who had already been asked by police to furnish the names of police officers responsible for the leaked document, was allegedly unable to provide that information. ¶3. (C) A journalist at El Khabar's sister paper, the leading French-language daily El Watan, who also reported on Mourad's treatment, told us privately Mourad ultimately gave the police the names of the officers who leaked the memorandum. The El Watan reporter said Mourad, whom he described as "young and inexperienced," had made three mistakes. First, he published the internal memorandum. Second, he went to the police station on his own initiative after learning his friend had been interrogated rather than waiting for an official summons. Third, he ruined the careers of policemen who merely wanted the public to know more about the GSPC. The El Watan journalist added that it was his understanding the police, at the time they interrogated Mourad, already knew which officers had leaked the memorandum, but they wanted Mourad's confirmation of the names. ¶4. (U) El Khabar denounced the police practices as "contravening the law...which assures journalists the right...to protect sources and (reveal them) only to the judiciary." The National Journalists Union, for its part, issued a statement in which it acknowledged the highly sensitive nature of the published information, but nevertheless described as "intolerable" the manner by which some law enforcement agents acted, especially since their primary function was to enforce the laws of Algeria. The Union regretted that "the justice system, whose job it is to render decisions on these issues, was blithely ignored" in this case. ERDMAN