FORM OVER FUNCTION: SURVIVING AS A NEWSPAPER IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ALGIERS 000504 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/03/2023 TAGS: PHUM PGOV KDEM KPAO AG SUBJECT: FORM OVER FUNCTION: SURVIVING AS A NEWSPAPER IN ALGERIA TODAY REF: ALGIERS 388 Classified By: Ambassador Robert S. Ford; reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Looking back on President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's second term, many of our press contacts have told us of their concerns that press freedoms and competence are shrinking. At the time of Bouteflika's re-election in 2004, French-language daily Liberte was considered an aggressive representative of Algeria's Fourth Estate by all accounts, whose investigative headlines attacked the regime and whose pages contained rich cultural reporting. Today, Liberte is a shadow of its former self. The number of advertising pages has more than doubled, the quality and accuracy of its reporting has declined, and it has come to resemble other Algerian tabloids that avoid much criticism of the government. The story of Liberte's decline paints a bleak picture of the competing business and political pressures upon the print media in today's Algeria - pressures which, taken together, make an environment that has grown less hospitable to the development of an independent and responsible press. END SUMMARY. LIBERTE'S GOOD OLD DAYS -------------- ¶2. (C) Following Bouteflika's re-election on April 2004, the press landscape began to change in Algeria. The Algerian Communist party affiliated, French-language newspaper Le Matin disappeared and its owner, Mohammed Benchicou, ended up in jail. Other newspapers which had supported defeated Bouteflika rival Ali Benflis began to change their editorials and front page headlines to soften criticisms of the Bouteflika government. The Liberte of 2003 and pre-election 2004 was considered a firestarter, featuring antagonistic covers such as one in which a photo of several cabinet ministers sat below the headline "All Thieves." Abrous Outoudert, editor-in-chief of Liberte from 1995 to 2003, told us that "after decades of muzzling, the Algerian population was starving for this kind of newspaper," which he said became one of the symbols of the independent press in Algeria. ¶3. (C) Outoudert's successor from 2003-04, Farid Allilat, regularly published the kind of directly critical front pages that would be unheard of today, said Outoudert, citing two examples of "Mr. Ouyahia (Prime Minister at the time) You Are a Liar," and "Said Bouteflika: A Sub-President" about the influence of Bouteflika's brother. Liberte's central page, "the radar," was a reliable source of biting political rumors, and even famed cartoonist Ali Dilem's cartoons, according to Outoudert, were even more inflammatory than they are today. Dilem often portrayed pot-bellied former Chief of Staff Mohammed Lamari smoking his cigar next to a dog dish labeled "the people," for example, and did not hesitate to draw allusions to Bouteflika's alleged love affair with singer Amel Wahbi. LIBERTE LOSES ITS TEETH -------------- ¶4. (C) Throughout the 1990s, Liberte owner Issad Rebrab - arguably the wealthiest businessman in Algeria - pushed a policy of rapprochement with the Berber-based opposition Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) party. As a result, Liberte had an editorial line that was close to the RCD's vision of a secular Algeria that was relatively western-oriented. According to RCD Member of Parliament Tarek Mira, Liberte struggled to balance its Berber sympathies with "a pro-Republican support for the security forces in the fight against (Islamist) terror." As Mira described it, this put Liberte at odds with itself since the government itself was restricting democracy. Even though "the honeymoon with RCD" had ended, the paper still supported RCD leader Said Sadi's candidacy for the presidency in 2004. With the chaos of the 1990s in the past, Mira said, the paper had little choice but to resolve its dual sympathies in favor of the security forces. TIES TO ESTABLISHMENT DRIVE BUSINESS DECISIONS -------------- - ALGIERS 00000504 002 OF 003 ¶5. (C) Omar Rebrab, CEO of Hyundai Algeria and son of Issad Rebrab, explained to us recently that his father realized after Bouteflika's re-election in 2004 that "he could lose (Algerian food processing conglomerate) Cevital because of Liberte." Omar said that the entire Rebrab business group began to encounter difficulties with port authorizations and customs approvals. At that time, he said, the Rebrab group was in the midst of expansion and could not afford any type of loss that would jeopardize the future of the business group. In 2005, Rebrab decided to reshuffle the management and direction of Liberte, hiring Mounir Boudjema, known as an excellent analyst on terrorism and security issues, to take the editorial lead at the paper as a nod to the security services. Ahmed Fattani, editor-in-chief of French-language daily L'Expression, worked at Liberte in the 1990s before leaving for France during the worst of the instability. He told us in early April that "he does not recognize Liberte anymore," adding that during Bouteflika's second term it had shifted from "total hysteria to complete adhesion" to the views espoused by the security services. "We all know the chapel at which Boudjema preaches," said Fattani, "and why Rebrab chose him." At the same time, Liberte secured steady access to government-controlled advertising from state enterprises and GoA contracting offices. MORE ADS, LESS SUBSTANCE -------------- ¶6. (C) Rebrab's change in direction did not sit well with many Liberte journalists. Former Liberte journalist Samar Smati told us she decided to leave Liberte after her coverage of the Khalifa banking scandal. "Whenever I commented on what was going on behind the scenes of the case," she said, "I was indirectly told to stick to the facts" in the public domain. Journalist Mustapha Benfodil also left Liberte, telling us the Liberte he used to work for had "abandoned its name" and now looked "more like a catalog than a newspaper with page after page of advertising." SHRINKING PRESS FREEDOMS -------------- ¶7. (C) On May 3, 2005, on the occasion of International Press Freedom Day, Bouteflika delivered a speech highlighting the responsibilities of the press and stating his will to have a press "made of professionals and not mercenaries." In the aftermath of the downfall of Le Matin and Benchicou, many newspapers fell into line after this speech. Leila Aslaoui, former Senator and Minister of Youth and Sports, used to write a Thursday column in French-language daily Le Soir d'Algerie in which she would denounce "Bouteflika's tribe," "the extremism of the Prime Minister," and "the false and unjust program of national reconciliation." She told us in early April that she considered it "her duty to write about a country which is going backwards due to the leadership of one person and his clan." She told us that in February of 2008, she was notified that her column space "had been reserved for other purposes." She has not appeared in Le Soir d'Algerie since. According to Aslaoui, the government "has cracked down on dissenting voices" during the Bouteflika second term, citing Benchicou as a cult hero among Algerian journalists. COMMENT: SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST? -------------- ¶8. (C) In the 1990s Liberte was not always the most accurate newspaper, but its editorial line espoused a vision of Algeria that many shared, and it had a strong readership. Among journalists now, Liberte has become a symbol of a softening of the tone of print media reporting, sharing this iconic status with Benchicou and others, such as former Arabic-language daily El Khabar editor-in-chief Ali Djerri, who was ousted several months ago, many believe, by shareholders pushing for greater alignment with the establishment. As our contacts have told us, Liberte did what it had to do to survive, by adapting to business and political pressures from the establishment. Liberte's struggles illustrate a series of pressures facing the Algerian print media more complex now than at any time during Bouteflika's first term from 1999-2004. Under pressure from the government, Liberte's editorial line changed due to owner Issad Rebrab's larger business interests, and several ALGIERS 00000504 003 OF 003 journalists abandoned the paper, disillusioned that Liberte had "sold out" in order to survive in the Algerian market. ¶9. (C) In Liberte's case, most readers today turn first not to the front page, but to the back cover to enjoy the daily Dilem cartoon which is often still bitingly critical of the government. Liberte's situation is not to say that the Algerian press has been silenced. There is still regular criticism of government policies in the press, but more and more only a handful of newspapers print such stories. El-Watan is one of them, and its editor faces prison due to a conviction for defamation (ref). Another is the largest selling daily, the Arabic language el-Khabar El-Watan and el-Khabar both enjoy strong copy sales, and they do not depend on government advertising; their copy sales bring in private companies to advertise with them. These two papers have their own printing press too, unlike Liberte. Thus, it would be hard for the GoA to shut el-Watan or el-Khabar down without generating great international criticism. In private, the staffs at the two papers express worries about a narrowing space for the independent press to express its opinions, especially with the approach of the 2009 presidential election. For that reason, the Embassy used MEPI funding to sponsor a seminar on May 1 to discuss how decriminalization of the press might work in Algeria, and the Ambassador and emboffs attended a conference on press freedom on May 3. We were the only foreign diplomats at either event. FORD