Algeria frees top journalist
2006-06-14 22:45
Algiers - Algeria released a leading
journalist from prison on Wednesday at the end of his two-year
sentence for violating a law governing the transfer of money
abroad, witnesses said.
Mohamed Benchicou, editor of independent newspaper Le Matin
and a critic of the authorities, was sentenced on June 14 2004
for breaking a foreign exchange and money transfer law after
police found bank vouchers in his luggage at Algiers airport.
"He left prison this morning. He is free," said a journalist
who worked at Le Matin, which has gone out of business for
financial reasons.
International human rights groups have accused Algeria of
using legal action to silence journalists who annoy its leaders.
The government rejects accusations it targets the media,
saying cases brought by the authorities had nothing to do with
politics or press freedom.
Defamation
Benchicou was the first journalist to be sentenced under the
money transfer law.
Last month, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika pardoned
journalists sentenced to prison for defamation and insulting
officials in the first such step since he took office seven
years ago.
The move, to mark World Press Freedom Day, covered reporters
convicted of "gross insult to state officials, offending the
president of the republic, injuring state institutions,
defamation and insult".
None of those journalists had actually been sent to prison,
despite their sentences.
Algerian journalists enjoy more freedom than those in many
other Arabic-speaking countries.
About 119 titles, including 43
dailies, have sprung up since the sector was liberalised in the
early 1990s.