INTERNATIONAL MAIL: After the newspaper Freedom, which had to close, it’s the turn ofEl-Watan to be in trouble. Is it due to the same reasons? What does this say about Algerian society?
ADLÈNE MEDDI : The situations of the two newspapers are different. El-Watan suffers from a large deficit in its cash flow, coupled with the blocking of its accounts because of a tax debt and a drying up of the advertising windfall. The newspaper has been banned from public advertising for years because of its editorial line.
Pour Freedom, the decision to close was taken by its owner, the billionaire Issad Rebrab (first fortune of Algeria), who wants to distance himself from the political and media world because of his past setbacks with the authorities, and in order to bequeath appeased his empire to his children