The Tahar Djaout press center, near place du 1is– May, in the heart of Algiers, seems decrepit under the hostile sun of this early August in Algiers. “This place embodies the great moments of the independent press so much”, sighs Yasmina Brik, a retired proofreader who worked in the newspapers hosted here, before they disappeared in turn.
It’s time for a crisis again. After three weeks of partial strike, the company union in El Watana leading French-language daily born in 1990, flagship of the fleet of newspapers of yesteryear, began an indefinite strike on 31 July. “The employees have not been paid for five months, and the shareholders are not outlining any lasting solution. The matter is in the hands of the courts.” deplores Mahmoud Mamart. The journalist is aware that the ongoing conflict threatens to hasten the end of the daily newspaper of the French-speaking elites, which sold up to 180,000 copies a day in its best years.
Investors ready to throw in the towel
Resignation dominates among the 18 shareholders, all co-founding journalists. Since the departure in May 2019 of its emblematic director Omar Belhouchet, to the first difficulties of the newspaper, El Watan gave away a lot of real estate to make ends meet. The shareholders would still be at the head of a real estate heritage of around 15 million euros. But “they no longer show us the will to continue the adventure due to a lack of sustainable prospects for the company”, says a union member. “The newspaper suffers from the public’s disaffection for the paper press, from the aging of the French-speaking readership which is not renewed and above all from its refusal to launch a dynamic digital version”, explains Samir Merad, media specialist.
The share of the repression of the freedom of the press by the Algerian authorities is however predominant in the crisis ofEl Watan. Just as it led, last April, the businessman, Issad Rebrab, to close Freedom, the other French-language newspaper with a large audience, while it still presented guarantees of solvency.
Directors threatened with prison
The latter ceased publication, leaving one of its journalists, Mohamed Mouloudj, in temporary detention and a second under judicial supervision. Its owner had been prevented from building a press group in 2016. He himself unfairly went to prison in 2019.
« El Watan can still be saved by a round of new investors, but all are afraid to put a finger in the media world”explains Mahmoud Mamart. « In 2014, under the Bouteflika era, he continues, large advertisers were strongly advised not to buy space at El Watan, in El Khabar (major Arabic-language daily, editor’s note) or any independent media. Today, since the Tebboune presidency, we threaten directors and shareholders with prison and we completely lock the game. “
“The end of a glorious era”
The industrialist Nabil Mellah, close to Hirak and shareholder of the electronic news agency which publishes Radio M and Maghreb Emergent, was sentenced to four years in prison on July 31 for an offense against the capital movement legislation, which was however invalidated. in court by judicial expertise. The director of the agency, Ihsane El Kadi, sentenced to six months in prison last June, is awaiting his appeal trial. The web radio and the economy site are suspended.
“It is a glorious era of the independent press which is ending before our eyes”, Epilogue Mahmoud Mamart. It primarily affects French-language newspapers because of the narrowness of their readership base, but even El Khabar shows serious signs of crisis. The press supply is digitally filled by public media and pro-government private newspapers supported by public advertising. Two large multinationals lamented at the end of July that they could no longer find serious media in Algiers for the organization of a press briefing.
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134e world rank for press freedom
According to Reporters Without Borders, the media landscape has never been so deteriorated in Algeria as since the Hirak protest movement in 2019 and the presidency of Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
The country is ranked au 134e world rank for freedom of the press.
In 2020, a reform of the penal code criminalizes from one to three years in prison the dissemination of “fake news” and the achievement “State security and national unity”, allowing the arrest of dozens of journalists. Several have been detained and sentenced.
Algeria has 256 prisoners of conscience, selon l’ONG Algerian Detainees.