Algeria
Algerian weeekly censored

afrol News, 1 December - The Algerian weekly news journal El Mouaad el Djazairi has been censored by government officials, according to reports from Algiers. The newspaper's last edition was removed from news stands all over the country.

In a letter to the Minister of the Interior, Yazid Zerhouni, the French media watchdog Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) protested against the seizure of the last issue of the weekly El Mouaad el Djazairi. 

- This censorship is arbitrary and is an illegal act in so far as it has not been preceded by any notification by the authorities and the services which have executed the seizure are not identified, declared RSF general secretary Robert Ménard. Ménard asked the minister to open an investigation. The decision to seize the newspaper is the first since the amendment of the penal code in June 2001, RSF recalls.

According to the information collected by RSF, The Arab weekly El Mouaad el Djazairi of 26 November was removed from news stands after distribution. 

The director of the newspaper, Abdelkader Talbi, was summoned by the security services on 27 and 28 November. The seizure was not preceded by a notification and the services which executed it have not been indentified. 

According to the journalists of El Mouaad el Djazairi, this sanction has a connection with the last editorial of the newspaper which accused the State of practising a terrorism more dangerous than that practiced by the terrorists themselves: "A terrorism which finds pleasure in everything it undertakes, even in collective carnage."

This editorial accused the government of poor management during the floods of 10 November, which had had a lot of victims. According to the daily Le Jeune Indépendant of 27 November, "There could be other reasons for the seizure of the weekly, like the big file about the assassination of Abdelkader Hachani, leader of the now defunct FIS."

Sources: Based on RSF and afrol archives

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