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Censored
February 10
All journalists, CENSORED
The Ministry of Interior ordered newspaper editors to submit "unofficial"accounts of security incidents to a government censor. Newspapers are only allowed to carry stories about the country's security situation that have been supplied by the official Algerian Press Service. In a press release, CPJ condemned the policy, noting that the government was further endangering journalists by forcing them to print state propaganda.
March 3
La Nation, CENSORED
The March 6 issue of La Nation was banned by the Ministry of Interior. The issue featured a special report on human rights in Algeria that was co-published with the French monthly newspaper Le Monde Diplomatique.
March 18
La Nation, CENSORED
Authorities seized the March 19-25 edition of the French-language weekly La Nation at the state-run printing house Societe d'Impression d'Alger (SIA). No explanation was given for the seizure.
March 25
La Nation, CENSORED
The Interior Ministry seized the March 25-April 1 edition of the French-language independent weekly La Nation at the state-run printing house, Societe d'Impression d'Alger (SIA). No explanation was given for the seizure.
April 7
Al-Hourria, CENSORED
The Arabic-language weekly Al-Hourria was seized by security forces at the state-run printing house where the newspaper is printed. There was no official explanation for the seizure. Al-Hourria's sister publication, the French-language La Nation, was banned three times in March.
April 25
El Watan, CENSORED
The state-run printing press, Societe d'Impression d'Alger (SIA), refused to print the April 24 edition of the French-language independent daily El Watan. SIA again refused to publish El Watan on May 7. No official explanations were given for SIA's actions. Journalists at the paper attributed the censorship to El Watan's coverage of government counterinsurgency operations.
July 3
Chawki Amari, La Tribune, IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION
Kheireddine Ameyar, La Tribune, LEGAL ACTION
Baya Gacemi, La Tribune, LEGAL ACTION
La Tribune, CENSORED
The offices of the independent French-language daily La Tribune were sealed because the paper published a political cartoon July 2 that depicted the Algerian flag in a satiric manner. On July 4, Amari, the cartoonist, was arrested in the early morning at his home in Algiers and charged with desecrating a national emblem. He was held at Serkadji prison for nearly a month. Ameyar, the paper's publisher, and Gacemi, the editor in chief, were placed under judicial supervision and ordered to appear before the court twice a week. In a July 11 letter to Algerian authorities, CPJ denounced Amari's arrest and the suspension of La Tribune, and called on the Algerian government to end press censorship. The case went to trial on July 20. On July 31, Gacemi was acquitted, and La Tribune was allowed to resume publication. But Amari received a three-year suspended prison sentence, and Ameyar was given a one-year suspended sentence. On Aug. 6, the public prosecutor of Algeria appealed the July 31 verdict that reopened the newspaper. On Sept. 3, the court ordered La Tribune closed for six months, upheld the suspended sentences of Amari and Ameyar, and convicted Gacemi, giving her a six-month suspended sentence.
December 16
Al-Hourria, CENSORED
Algerian authorities seized issues of the Arabic-language weekly Al-Hourria from the state-controlled printing press in Algiers. No official reason was given for the confiscation. Spokesmen from the newspaper suspect that an interview with an opposition figure and a review of a book on the human rights situation in Algeria prompted the move. The occasion marked the third time in 1996 that authorities confiscated Al-Hourria.
For more information contact mideastweb@cpj.org