Editors of Errissala and Essafir freed

Reporters Without Borders voiced relief today on learning of the release of Kamel Bousaâd and Berkane Bouderbala, the editors of the two sister weeklies Errissala and Essafir, who had been held for more than a month in Serkadji prison in Algiers for reprinting three of the controversial Mohammed cartoons. They were freed yesterday. Bousaâd was arrested on 8 February and Bouderbala was arrested on 11 February as a result of a complaint brought by the communication ministry under article 144b of the Algerian criminal code, which says: “Any person who offends the Prophet or the envoys of God or denigrates the dogma or precepts of Islam is punished by three to five years in prison.” -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12.02.2006 Detention of two magazine editors over Mohammed cartoons called “absurd” Reporters Without Borders today condemned as “absurd and dangerous” the detention since early February of Kamel Bousaâd and Berkane Bouderbala, the editors of two sister Arabic-language weeklies, for reprinting three of the Mohammed cartoons that were published last September in the Danish daily Jyllands Posten. Their magazines have been suspended and they face prison sentences. “It is hard to imagine that Bousaâd and Bouderbala were trying to offend Islam and the Prophet when they reprinted these cartoons,” the press freedom organisation said. “Aside from the fact that caricature is one of the standard journalistic genres, you cannot expect journalists to try to explain this controversy without making at least a limited reference to what it is all about.” Reporters Without Borders added: “We call on the communication ministry, which brought the prosecution against these journalists, to withdraw and its complaint and allow the two weeklies to resume publishing.” The magazines, Essafir and its religious supplement Errisala, reprinted three of the Mohammed cartoons in their 2 February issues, immediately prompting the communication ministry to file complaints with the prosecutor's office in Algiers. Bousaâd, Errisala's editor, was arrested and placed in custody in Algiers' Serkadji prison on 8 February. Bouderbala, the editor of Essafir, was placed in custody in the same prison three days later. They have been charged under article 144b of the Algerian criminal code, which says: “Any person who offends the Prophet or the envoys of God or denigrates the dogma or precepts of Islam is punished by three to five years in prison.” The suspension of the two magazines was an administrative decision. The heads of the two public television stations Canal Algérie and A3 were meanwhile also removed from their posts this week for showing the Mohammed cartoons in news reports about the outcry they had triggered.