First: Introduction
The deteriorating state of freedom of opinion and expression in Algeria during 2019 was the main push that led to the outbreak of the people’s revolution to end the autocratic rule of Bouteflika and his political factions that plundered much of the country’s wealth and suppressed all the opposing views. On February 22, protesters broke all the barriers of fear and took to the streets in massive protests to denounce President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s candidacy for a fifth term in the elections scheduled for April 18, 2019. Although protesters came out in large numbers, the rallies remained peaceful.
Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algeria’s longest-serving president, had been in power since 1999 and had ruled for four consecutive presidential terms. The 81-year-old had made very few public appearances since suffering a debilitating stroke in 2013 that left him largely incapacitated.
Despite the increasing number of protests pertaining to the deteriorating economic situation, Algeria had not been affected by the first wave of the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011. Bouteflika, ruled the country for nearly two decades, announced his resignation in the evening of April 2, 2019 handing his resignation letter to the Constitutional Council’s President Tayeb Belaiz. Consequently, on 9 April 2019, Algeria’s parliament officially confirmed Senate President Abdelkader Bensalah as the acting head of state for 90 days after declaring the presidency vacant following Bouteflika’s resignation.
Second: Legislative and legal developments
After the eruption of the revolution in Algeria on February 22 and the fall of Bouteflika on the 2nd of April, the parliament did not discuss any laws that are directly related to freedom of opinion and expression, rather; it responded to the demands raised by the Algerian popular protest movement “Hirak” and discussed laws related to the enhancement of transparency and the fight against corruption, besides laws and measures regarding the establishment of an independent national electoral authority and the enactment of a new election law.
Accordingly, the Algerian parliament, in its two chambers (the People’s National Assembly and the National Assembly) adopted on the 12th and 13th of September 2019 by a majority a bill on the creation of the Independent National Electoral Authority in charge of elections for the first time in the country’s history, in addition to making amendments to the electoral law. (1)
Also, on Monday, 14 October 2019, the Algerian Cabinet approved a bill prohibiting retired military personnel from running for elections or engaging in any political activity for a period of 5 years after the termination of service, although it still maintains their right to vote in elections.
Third: Cases with the most impact on freedom of expression
There are many cases that gained the public opinion’s attention during the year, including: holding an Amazigh flag during a 21 June 2019 protest, resulting in the arrest of 19 protesters on a charge of “threatening national unity” causing national controversy in the public sphere.
Also, the death of human rights activist Kamal Eddine Fakhar on May 28 owing to some health complications, as a result of entering a hunger strike to protest against his imprisonment because of “Facebook” posts, is among the critical cases that brought to the public opinion the issue of prisoners of conscience and led to all demonstrations calling for their release. (2)
Public opinion was also concerned about the security forces’ violent intervention to break up a sit-in staged by a number of unemployed individuals in Tenerkuk district of Adrar province, south of the capital on May 14, as violent clashes erupted between the police and protesters leaving many seriously wounded.
Fourth: Violations against freedom of expression
Banning activities
On April 25, the Faculty of Political Science department at the University of Algiers III banned a seminar for teachers that was planned to be organized to discuss the “democratic transition in Algeria”, before the administration shut down all the faculty’s halls without giving any clear reasons.
In another incident, a National Gendarmerie officer, tasked with closing the ring axis in Jabal al-Wahsh neighborhood in the city of Constantine, prevented a journalist working for “El-Khabar” newspaper from covering a huge bushfire that broke out in Jabal al-Wahsh forest on the 3rd of August, while he allowed the other journalists to cover the incident.
Blocking websites/ services
The Algerian authorities have been able to put pressure on independent newspapers and television channels to prevent them from reporting news truthfully and on time and from opening the door to critical voices. As a consequence, there has been an apparent need to resort to news websites which use new technologies such as live-streaming, besides social media platforms that convey information to the public as simply and honestly as possible. In response, the authorities in Algeria turned to blocking these websites to limit their noticeable impact on shaping public opinion.
For example, Lounas Kaddam, the director of the Algerian news website (TSA) “Tout Sur l’Algérie” (All about Algeria) announced, on June 12, that the website has been blocked in Algeria (but it stills works outside the country) because of its coverage of the protest movement in Algeria.
In solidarity with the blocked websites, a group of young people organized, on 17 June, a protest in Algiers as they held a minute of silence in which they muzzled their mouths with their hands as a way to demonstrate their objection to the ban.
Algeria’s communications ministry had also blocked access to social networking websites “Facebook”, “Twitter”, “Instagram”, “Youtube” and “WhatsApp” since the 16th of June 2019, a move Algerian authorities say is aimed at preventing cheating at exams and fighting test leaks onto social media websites. In a related context, the state-run Algeria Telecom blocked, in the evening of August 8, “YouTube” and many of Google’s services in Algeria. The ban came after the publication of a video where Algeria’s ex-defense minister Khaled Nezzar addressed “members of the National People’s Army” calling on them to “realize the demands of the people,” which was interpreted as a call for the public to oust military leader Ahmed Gaid Salah.
Assaults
The Algerian authorities used violence in an attempt to control or suppress peaceful activities and restrict the right to speech. For instance, on April 17, a security force stormed Algiers University’s Faculty of Law in the Algerian capital, where students and professors took part in a seminar about their contribution to the Algerian popular protest movement “Hirak”. The university’s board, however, denied in a statement having any contact with the security forces or that it granted them permission to enter the campus.
On 14 May, security forces broke up a sit-in staged by a number of unemployed persons in Tenerkuk district of Adrar province (about 800 km south of Algiers), before they arrested many of them resulting in violent clashes between the police and protesters, which left 14 policemen injured and four protesters seriously wounded.
In a similar incident, riot police broke up, on July 28, a sit-in by four unemployed youth in front of the Ghazi Barotha in Adrar province, against the backdrop of employment demands after all solutions and mediation attempts between unemployed and recruitment agencies had been exhausted.
Regarding the situation of public protests and the state of distrust in the Algerian authorities, a number of students and protesters in Algeria stormed, on Saturday August 17, the headquarters of National Dialogue Management Committee at Al-Arabi Bin Mahdi Street in Algeris, where a seminar were held by a number of the committee’s members to announce the formation of its advisory committee. The protesting students accused the committee members of “betraying the will of the people, and turning back the peaceful gift for which the Algerians came out since 22 February”.
It is worth noting that Algeria’s National Commission for Dialogue and Mediation is a non-governmental commission formed on July 25, 2019, at the initiative of the transitional president, Abdul Qadir bin Saleh.
With regard to the attack on journalists and media workers, Hisham Hammel, head of the Algeria Press Service (APS) office in Tapaza (west of the capital), was attacked by a group of protesters on Friday, April 19, while covering the 9th consecutive Friday March in Tapaza; over claims that women were photographed without their permission.
Moreover, Mustapha Bendjama, editor-in-chief of local daily “La Provincial”, was slapped and punched by members of police intelligence, on June 28, in the northeastern town of Annaba, where he was covering a protest via his Facebook account.
In Cairo Egypt, journalist Rafik, corresponded for “El-Khabar” Algerian newspaper, who was tasked to cover Algeria national football team’s participation in the African Cup of Nations “Alcan” in Egypt, was attacked on the 4th of July by the Algerian national team’s assistant director, Lamine Abdi; after the journalist criticized the performance of the President of the Algerian Football Association, Khair Eddine Zouche.
Also, on October 5, security forces assaulted journalist Mohamed Jarrada, Al-Hurra TV channel correspondent, while he was taking pictures of a gathering attended by dozens of people to commemorate the 31st anniversary of the October 5, 1988 uprising. The reporter, along with the accompanying cameraman, were detained inside one of the security forces’ vehicles for a period of time before seizing their mobile phones and cameras and deleting what they had filmed.
Detention
Detention is one of the most common methods used by the Algerian authorities to restrict freedom of expression, but it didn’t prevent human rights activist Kamal Eddine Fakhar from expressing his objection to injustice until he died on May 28 at “Franz Fanon Hospital” in Balida, 50 km from the capital, after suffering some health complications as a result of entering a hunger strike to protest his imprisonment over “Facebook” posts.
Many human rights activists were also subjected to detention. For example, on 31 May, police forces arrested a number of protesters and activists to prevent them from demonstrating outside the Grand Post Office in Algiers, at the time many Algerian people took to the streets to demonstrate on the 15th Friday of the popular movement witnessed by the country since 22 February.
The authorities also arrested Ahmed Benchemsi, the Advocacy and Communications Director for Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division, on Friday, August 9, during his participation in the protests calling for the departure of former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s regime’s symbols. Benchemsi was released a day after his arrest.
On the other hand, the investigating judge at the Sidi Mohamed Court in Algiers ruled, on September 29, to hold Ahsan Qadi and Karim Bouta in pretrial detention after charging them with “distributing leaflets that would harm the country’s national interest”.
On October 9, security forces in “Wadi” region arrested Farouq Qadiry, Abd al-Ali bin Omar and Karam Shabro, for allegedly “obstruction and contempt of a public institution, libel and defamation, and taking pictures”, against the backdrop of their participation in a protest sit-in organized by an association for the unemployed in front of one of the recruitment agencies.
Trials
In addition to the incarceration of protesters and activists, the Algerian authorities have used numerous means to curb the weekly protests that had continued throughout the year.
With regard to corruption cases that were considered during Bouteflika’s era, the former Minister of Culture Ezzedine Mihoubi announced, on April 27, his appeal to the judiciary accusing Abdelali Mzghish, a journalist at the public television, of defamation and slander; after he posted a photo on his Facebook page that shows Mihoubi meeting with tycoon Kamal al-Bouchi, who is detained over a Cocaine case, while they were preparing to hold a football match.
In another case that had drawn considerable attention and controversy from the public, the investigating judges ordered, on Sunday 23 June, the detention of 18 protesters in the Algerian capital and one protester in Bejaia province, a port city east of Algiers, after they were arrested during the 21 June protests on charges of: “undermining national unity” through bearing a flag other than the Algerian national flag and “insulting a statutory body” against the backdrop of brandishing the Amazigh flag during the protests. (3)
Furthermore, lawyer and human rights activist Ramzy Shakhab received, on the first of August, a subpoena through a phone call from the Cybercrime Police affiliated to the Khenchela Province Security, informing him that the Public Prosecution had referred him to trial on a charge of “inciting to protest” via social media. The summons came after the lawyer posted, on the 4th of February, a 4-minute video on his account on Facebook announcing his rejection to the then-President Bouteflika’s candidacy for a fifth term.
On September 26, the investigating judge at Bir Mourad Rais Court in the capital Algiers ruled to hold Sofiane Marrakchi, correspondent for TV channel Al-Mayadeen, in pretrial detention, on charges of “The introduction of equipment used for live broadcasting without a license and customs evasion”.
Fifth: Most common accusations against freedom of expression
The majority of the charges used to restrict freedom of expression during 2019 are directly related to social protests, most prominent of which are: “inciting gatherings”, “undermining national unity through bearing a flag other than the Algerian national flag”, “insulting a statutory body”, “obstruction and contempt of a public institution”, and “distributing leaflets that would harm the country’s national interest”.
This is in addition to the accusations commonly used in the past against journalists and social media activists such as; “libel and defamation”, “taking pictures”, “introducing equipment without a license” and “customs evasion”.
Sixth: Victims
The list of victims of freedom of expression in Algeria in 2019 included anti-government protesters, human rights defenders, and journalists, besides the news websites, as follows: human rights activist Kamal Eddine Fakhar, lawyer and human rights activist Ramzy Shakhab, along with peaceful gatherings activists Farouq Qadiry, Abd al-Ali bin Omar and Karam Shabro, and journalists Mohamed Jarrada, Al-Hurra TV channel correspondent, Mustapha Bendjama- editor-in-chief of local daily “La Provincial”- and Sofiane Marrakchi, and media worker Abdelali Mzghish, in addition to those who participated in the sit-ins of the unemployed people at Tenerkuk and Ghazi Barotha districts in Adrar province. The list also included the Algerian news website (TSA) “Tout Sur l’Algérie” (All about Algeria).
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Footnotes
- A news report on Anadolu Agency website, entitled “The Algerian Parliament Approves Legal Provisions for the Elections”- Published on: September 13, 2019- Last accessed date: October 27, 2019-
https://www.aa.com.tr/ar/ Arab-Countries / Algerian-Parliament-Approves-Legal-Texts-Elections-1582964
- A news report published on DW website, titled “How the death of Amazigh rights activist “Fakhar” influences the Hirak movement in Algeria?”- Published on May 29, 2019- Last accessed date: October 26, 2019-
https://www.dw.com/en/Any-effect-of-death-of-human-Amazigh-pottery-on-the-movement-Algeria / a-48963943
- An investigative report entitled “Lawyer Fottah Sadat: The regime uses the story of the Amazigh flag to break the unity of the Algerian people”- Published on” June 25, 2019, Last accessed date: October 26, 2019-
https://www.france24.com/ar/20190625-Algeria-Raya-Amazigh-Imprisonment-Temporary-Protest-Mobility-Demonstration
