Press freedom at the mercy of a lawless state

Reporters Without Borders today renewed its call to Algeria's rulers to thoroughly investigate all murders, kidnappings and physical attacks involving journalists. The latest victim is journalist Abdelhai Beliardouh, who died on 20 November of injuries from a suicide attempt after the head of a local chamber of commerce beat him up in July. These abuses are described in the report of a fact-finding mission to Algeria by the organisation, which also urged abolition of prison terms for press offences and appealed to the European Union to ensure Algeria respects the human rights clause in its association treaty with the EU approved by the European parliament in October. The killings and disappearances that have plagued the country's journalists in past years have now given way to threats and intimidation by local officials, shady businessmen and some representatives of rebel movements in the Kabylie region, says the report by the mission, which went to Algeria in late October. The media are also threatened in other ways, it says, and journalists who tackle taboo subjects such as human rights violations and the army's control of the government are seriously harassed. Impunity remains the rule, the report says, especially in the cases of five journalists who "vanished" between 1994 and 1997. Reporters Without Borders said after an earlier mission in January 2001 that three of them had been kidnapped by the security forces. Enquiries into these cases have not come to anything. The present report also criticises the major threat currently hanging over the heads of journalists - an amendment to the law to make them liable for prison sentences of between two months and a year for insulting or defaming the country's president. A new press law being proposed by the minister of communications is another bid to gag the media. The full mission report (in French) can be found at www.rsf.org