RSF has expressed
concern about the ongoing police harassment of the daily
newspaper "Le Matin" and its managing editor,
Mohammed Benchicou.
On 25 August
2003, Benchicou told the organisation that police had
made no written record of their search of his person
at Algiers airport on 23 August. He said he had been
summoned by detectives and feared he would be arrested
within the next few days.
The authorities
intend to shut down "Le Matin", Benchicou
said, and police have ordered the paper's bank manager
not to issue a certified cheque to the publication.
The cheque is needed to pay off its last debts to the
state printing firm. Benchicou said three-quarters of
the debt had already been paid.
Very few Algerian
newspapers disclose their annual accounts or daily print-run
figures. Their failure to comply with the law in this
way is not formally punished but instead left in limbo
by the authorities as a means to intimidate, censor
and blackmail them. The state printers are also deliberately
lax and allow debts to build up over a long period,
finally demanding repayment as a means of preventing
certain papers from publishing.
In addition to
this arbitrary and legally unclear situation, the poisonous
climate surrounding the 2004 presidential election campaign,
which has started very early, also threatens press freedom.
Several Algerian
newspapers have closed down since the state printers
gave six publications an ultimatum to settle their major
debts. "Liberté" and "El-Khabar"
paid their debts and continue to be printed, but "Le
Matin", "Le Soir d'Algérie", "L'Expression"
and "Er-Raï" have not appeared since
18 August.
For further
information, contact Virginie Locussol at RSF, rue Geoffroy
Marie, Paris 75009, France, tel: +33 1 44 83 84 84,
fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51, e-mail: norddelafrique@rsf.org, Internet:
http://www.rsf.org/ |
