Between Death Threats And Censorship

31 March, 1998

Summary of ICG report on the independent press In Algeria

Contents

• Introduction

• Limits on democratic development in Algeria

• The state of the private press

• Pressures and restrictions on journalists

• ICG recommendations
  1. Increasing Pressure on the Algerian Government
  2. Channelling material support to independent newspapers and journalists
  3. Increasing international diplomatic presence in Algeria
  4. Encouraging greater contacts between Algerian journalists and their counterparts outside Algeria

A spate of massacres in Algeria in the second half of 1997 and the first three months of 1998 has resulted in a surge of international interest in the country and led, briefly, to a diplomatic flurry of activity. But while the sudden glare of media and high-level political attention has increased awareness of the violence and complexity of Algeria's crisis, it has also exposed a lack of understanding and agreement, among key policy-makers in Europe and north America, concerning the measures necessary to help resolve the crisis and bring an end to the appalling wave of killings.

The International Crisis Group (ICG) began monitoring the situation in Algeria in late 1997. The purpose of ICG's initiative is to identify practical ways in which the international community can contribute to a lasting resolution of the Algerian crisis. This paper is a summary of ICG's first report on Algeria Entre Menace, Censure et Libert�, released on 31 March 1998. The report focuses on the plight of the independent press, including obstacles faced by journalists trying to expose the truth in an environment clouded by violence, censorship and repression and the potentially vital role of the private press in creating greater discussion and accountability in Algerian public life. The report, which was prepared by an ICG analyst following field research carried out in Algeria during four one-week visits to the country between January and March 1998, concludes with a series of policy recommendations directed principally at the European Union, individual Western governments and the wider international donor community.

The foundations of Algerian democracy are shallow and fragile. Although the government tolerates the existence of opposition political parties and a private press, it deploys an array of sophisticated methods - including censorship, restrictions on paper and printing and other financial restraints - to severely limit their impact.

Opportunities to hold the government to account, to engage in genuine, democratic debate on key social issues, are in short supply. Creating and broadening such opportunities - a process sometimes referred to as expanding Algeria's "democratic spaces" - is an all-important task if the country is to be pulled out of its current cycle of violence and placed on a more stable and democratic footing.

There are essentially four organs of Algerian society that, at least in theory, are well placed to provide spaces for democracy and pluralist debate:

• The National Assembly - where all the key social, cultural and religious cleavages of Algerian society are reflected (including Islam versus secularism; authoritarian regime versus democracy; confrontation with the Front Islamique du Salut (FIS) versus inclusive dialogue).

• The judicial system - which is not independent from the government, a problem that precludes the possibility of free and fair trials for suspected perpetrators of violence, including FIS members.

• Civil society - represented by thousands of associations, almost all of them established since 1990, whose impact is severely blunted by restrictive legislation, financial problems and press censorship and other measures designed to smother criticism of government policies.

• The independent press - which, although subject to various restraints and accessible to a relatively small number of people, remains stubbornly independent and represents the best available channel by which to establish and transmit a persuasive critique of the status quo in Algeria.

The role of the independent press in Algeria is vital. The government has complete control over all domestic audio-visual media and much of the popular press is also state-controlled. Access to the Internet is also severely restricted by the government, which is the sole access provider and charges a scandalously high fee for connection. Apart from foreign television news programs, available via satellite for those Algerians who can afford the technology, the private press in Algeria is effectively the only available source of undoctored information and analysis, the only forum in which key issues concerning the management of Algerian public affairs can be scrutinised and discussed in a democratic manner.

Although subject to a number of debilitating restraints, the ICG report finds the private press in Algeria among the most free of any in the Arab world. Private newspapers have been permitted under Algerian law since 1990. Today there are 12 private titles, which, according to estimates, command between them a circulation of approximately 775,000 - and a total readership of some three million. All but one of the six independent dailies (Liberte, El Watan, Le Matin, Le Soir d'Algerie and La Tribune) are published in French; one (El Khabar) is published in Arabic.

Although these newspapers take a variety of political positions, they are all broadly opposed to the imposition of an Islamic republic and campaign daily for a democratic state, a separation of politics and religion and the more robust protection of political freedoms. It is a position that puts them at odds with both the Islamic integrists, on one side, and the military government, known as le pouvoir, on the other.

For the most part, the press argues strongly against any dialogue with the Islamic integrists. The only newspaper to break ranks and express support for dialogue was closed in December 1996. However, in March 1998, Libre Alg�rie, the newly re-launched journal of the Front de Forces Socialistes, called for dialogue to be opened.

It is the private press that, in defiance of the official line, is responsible for revealing the full, horrific extent of the violence that has swept through Algeria since the current conflict erupted in 1993. In recent months, these newspapers alone have carried extensive news and eyewitness reports of civilian massacres and reported casualty figures significantly higher than those admitted by the government. Had it not been for their determination to strike an independent line, the Algerian tragedy, about which the world is increasingly aware, would have been largely hidden.

Such determination is extraordinary, given the appalling conditions in which most journalists are forced to work. Reporters and editors face a real threat to their physical safety from Islamic terrorists who are widely believed to be responsible, (and indeed in most cases have actually claimed responsibility), for the death of 60 journalists since 1993. While the killing of journalists seems, for the moment at least, to have ended, few journalists feel secure while violence and terrorism is so widespread.

At the same time, their work is further complicated by government efforts to stifle press criticism of public policy decisions. While proclaiming a free press, the Algerian government uses various devises to curb and intimidate the private press, including:

• a ban on all press reporting of information concerning security (including the massacres and the response of state security forces)

• a state monopoly of printing and paper supply that ensures the price of newspapers is kept high and print-runs and circulation is controlled

• effective state control over advertising revenues (and therefore the financial viability) of private newspapers through the strategic placement and withdrawal of public company notices

• the threat of closure or penalisation in the event that a newspaper goes too far in its criticisms of government policy

ICG believes that support for the private press in Algeria is an important expression of solidarity with the country's independent journalists who risk all to keep alive the principle of free speech. But it is also a rare and useful way for western governments to help create and extend pluralist debate on the future of Algeria and the need for a democratic alternative to the varying degrees of social and political authoritarianism otherwise offered by the Algerian government, on the one hand, and Islamic integrists, on the other.

Algeria claims to be a democracy. It is therefore reasonable for the international community to judge the country by the normal standards of a democracy and to protest when democratic principles are breached. In relation to the press, governments and international organisations should use the leverage at their disposal to achieve a lifting of the pressures and restrictions currently imposed on private newspapers and do all they can to support the work of journalists who work for such newspapers.

In this context, ICG recommends the following steps:

Individual national governments, the European Union and other international bodies should demand that the Algerian government take the following necessary steps:

1. end the state monopolies on printing, paper supply and Internet access;
2. reform the Information Code to guarantee the independence and freedom of the press;
3. reform provisions governing the ban on reporting security information to permit the press to report information of legitimate public interest;
4. liberalise the audio-visual sector, allow private television and radio stations to broadcast and grant civil society organisations access to national television and radio;
5. permit greater access and freedom of movement to foreign journalists and officials in Algeria.

To this end, the European Union should link the conclusion of the proposed Agreement of Association between the EU and Algeria with progress on addressing the above issues.

The World Trade Organisation should demand that the Algerian government take steps to end state monopolies on printing, paper production, Internet access and audio-visual production and broadcasting.

National governments should protest vigorously every time a private newspaper in Algeria is subjected to censorship or intimidation by the government.

As steps are taken to help ease the conditions in which journalists work, the international donor community - including governments, the EU and private organisations - should be prepared to channel increased material support to independent newspapers and the journalists who work for them. Such support could take the form of direct financial assistance, the provision of equipment (in particular printing machines, but also computers, fax machines and modems etc) and training for journalists and editors.

The European Union should open as soon as possible a Representative Office in Algeria.

Countries that have reduced their diplomatic representation or have closed their embassies for security reasons, should reconsider their position. The current diplomatic presence in Algeria is too small to permit serious and in-depth monitoring of the situation.

Algeria suffers from being encased in a world of its own. This compounds the intensity of local conflict and makes it more difficult for the international community to understand developments inside the country. Exchanges and contacts between journalists in Algeria and their counterparts elsewhere in the world should be encouraged both directions.

[Algeria Menu] - [Full Report] - [Top] - [ICG Home]