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The working conditions of journalists in Algeria have evolved since the 1962 independence. After 1990, the Code of Press was suppressed, allowing for greater freedom of press. However, with the civil war in the 1990s, more than 70 journalists were assassinated by terrorists. Sixty journalists were killed between 1993 and 1998 in Algeria. [1]
In the 1990s to the 2000s, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika ordered several newspaper closures, imprisoned journalists such as Mohammad Benchicou, director of Le Matin and author of a critical biography of Bouteflika, and forced other reporters into exile, mostly in France.
Reporters Without Borders's (RSF in French) index for freedom of press gives approximatively 40 for Algeria since five years (although the figure has increased, signifying a lesser freedom of press). Along with L'Humanité newspaper, RWF did denounce the imprisonment of Mohammad Benchicou, director of Le Matin, who was sentenced to two years in prison for denouncing corruption in Algeria. Benchicou was awarded in 2006 the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award.
Algeria continued to experience many attacks on freedom of press, apart from Mohammad Benchicou's imprisonment. The La Tribune newspaper was closed in 1996 [2] and the Sam blog was censored in March 2006. [3] El Watan also suffered from attacks from the Algerian state in 1998. [4] Its reporters had, according to RSF and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), been targeted by both government forces and Islamist insurgents. [5] [6] Journalists from Liberté and from Le Matin were forced into exile in France. [7]
The authorities blocked on February 7, 2007, a symposium titled "Pour la Vérité, la Paix et la Conciliation" (For Truth, Peace and Conciliation) organised by the CFDA (Collectif des familles de disparus en Algérie, Collective of the Families of Disappeared People in Algeria), SOS Disparus, Djazairouna, the ANFD (Association nationale des familles de disparus) and Somoud. This new form of censorship on a conference concerning the "disappearances" which occurred during the civil war in the 1990s has been criticized by the ACAT-France ( Action des Chrétiens pour l'abolition de la torture ), the International Federation of Human Rights (IFHR), and the World Organization Against Torture (WOAT). Furthermore, critics of the controversial Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation, adopted on September 29, 2006, have been targeted by the authorities, who use various methods of intimidation, including lawsuits, on lawyers and human rights defenders. [8]
In April 2020, El País reported that the authorities had blocked the websites Maghreb Emergent and Radio M, which had been critical of the regime. Journalist Khaled Drareni who worked for Radio M and reported on the 2019–2020 Algerian protests was arrested. [9] On June 13, 2021, the Algerian Ministry of Communication decided to rescind the media accreditation of well-known French news channel France 24. [10]
On August 13th, 2023, the movie Barbie was forbidden from screening in Algerian cinema theaters for “ disrespecting the values of Algerian society “. [11]
El Watan is an independent French-language newspaper in Algeria.
Major-General Khaled Nezzar was an Algerian general and a member of the High Council of State of Algeria. He was born in the douar of Thlet, in Seriana in the Batna region. His father, Rahal Nezzar, was a former non-commissioned officer in the French army who had turned to farming after World War II. His mother died in 1941.
Mourad Medelci was an Algerian politician who served in the government of Algeria as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2007 to 2013. He was President of the Constitutional Council of Algeria from 2013 until his death in 2019.
Internet use in Algeria increased from 150,000 users in 2006 to approximately 18,583,000 in 2015, with a penetration rate of 46% of the population, In 2008, the government set aside €100 million to provide internet to every high school in the country but we saw nothing at all. The country is also modernising its internet network by installing optical fiber cables, and multi-service access nodes (MSANs) all across the country. The main internet service provider is Algérie Télécom, currently state owned but slated for privatization. In Algeria government regulations permit controls on internet access and monitoring of content. ISPs are responsible for the sites they host, and are required to take “all necessary steps to ensure constant surveillance” of content to prevent access to “material contrary to public order and morality.” These laws are often used against journalists and to prevent antigovernmental activism.
Algeria has more than 45 independent Arabic language and French language publications as well as 4 government-owned newspapers, but the government controls most printing presses and advertising. The Algerian newspapers with the largest circulations are Echourouk (1,800,000), Ennahar (1,600,000), El Khabar (1,000,000) and Quotidien d'Oran (700,000); all four are employee-owned. In 2004 and 2005, the government increased the access of Berber language and culture to both print and broadcast media.
The 2010–2012 Algerian protests were a series of protests taking place throughout Algeria, lasting from 28 December 2010 to 10 January 2012. The protests had been inspired by similar protests across the Middle East and North Africa. Causes cited by the protesters included unemployment, the lack of housing, food-price inflation, corruption, restrictions on freedom of speech and poor living conditions. While localized protests were already commonplace over previous years, extending into December 2010, an unprecedented wave of simultaneous protests and riots, sparked by sudden rises in staple food prices, erupted all over the country starting in January 2011. These were quelled by government measures to lower food prices, but were followed by a wave of self-immolations, most of them in front of government buildings. Opposition parties, unions, and human rights organisations then began to hold weekly demonstrations, despite these being illegal without government permission under the ongoing state of emergency; the government suppressed these demonstrations as far as possible, but in late February yielded to pressure and lifted the state of emergency. Meanwhile, protests by unemployed youth, typically citing unemployment, hogra (oppression), and infrastructure problems, resumed, occurring almost daily in towns scattered all over the country.
Omar Belhouchet is an Algerian journalist who is renowned for his investigative reporting and supporting freedom of the press; his work and persistence have received international recognition. During the civil war of the 1990s, which put enormous pressure on the free press from both sides, Belhouchet was prosecuted numerous times by his government and survived two assassination attempts.
El Alia Cemetery is a cemetery in a suburb of Algiers in the commune of Oued Smar in Algeria. The name "El Alia" means in Arabic which is high, but came from the surname of the donor of the land in 1928, Hamza El-Alia.
Abdelmadjid Tebboune is an Algerian politician currently serving as the President of Algeria since December 2019 and as Minister of Defence.
Yetnahaw Gaa, often written Yetnahaw ga3 !, is a slogan in Algerian Arabic, which appeared during the protests that took place in Algeria from 2019 to early 2021. It has become a sort of rallying cry of internet surfers since the publication of a video on social media showing a young Algerian interrupting a local correspondent of the television channel Sky News Arabia, on the evening of 11 March 2019 where ex-president Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced he was giving up a fifth term. The idea behind this slogan is that anyone who has led or participated in any way in the governance of the country should be hunted.
The 2019–2021 Algerian protests, also called Revolution of Smiles or Hirak Movement began on 16 February 2019, six days after Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced his candidacy for a fifth presidential term in a signed statement. These protests, without precedent since the Algerian Civil War, were peaceful and led the military to insist on Bouteflika's immediate resignation, which took place on 2 April 2019. By early May, a significant number of power-brokers close to the deposed administration, including the former president's younger brother Saïd, had been arrested.
Saïd Bouteflika is an Algerian politician and academic. He is the brother and was a special adviser of Abdelaziz Bouteflika in his former role as President of Algeria, on whom he would have had "considerable influence", especially after the president suffered a serious stroke in 2013. He was also an assistant professor at the University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediene (USTHB).
Lakhdar Bouregaa was an Algerian independentist militant. He was a Commander of the National Liberation Army, serving from 1956 to 1962. He was opposed to the Oujda Group following a clash in the summer of 1962. He was a co-founder of the Socialist Forces Front in 1963, and was a key figure during the 2019–20 Algerian protests.
The villa Sésini is a torture center established in El Biar during the Algerian war in the city of Algiers.
Fodil Mezali is an Algerian journalist, editor-in-chief and managing editor.
Mohamed Hassaïne was an Algerian journalist.
Ammar Belhimer is an Algerian public law teacher and journalist, who became Minister of Communication and spokesperson for the first Djerad government on 4 January 2020. then from the first Benabderrahmane government from January 4, 2020 to November 11, 2021.
Ihsane El Kadi is an Algerian journalist and press freedom activist who founded the media outlets Maghreb Émergent and Radio M, among the few independent outlets in Algeria until their dissolutions in 2023. A noted critic of the government and a prominent leader during the Hirak protest movement, El Kadi has been arrested and charged with multiple offences, most recently being sentenced to five years in prison in 2023 for the "foreign financing of his business" in a trial that human rights organisations have denounced as unfair and unjust.
