The president Bouteflika issued, yesterday, a new decree forgiving journalists sued in defamation and insult of employee or institutions or regime sectors and smear, as a completion to the decree issued on 3 May 2006, on the occasion of the of the international day for freedom of media, and which did not benefit any journalist, on the contrary to what was declared by the ministry of justice.
The presidency statement declared, according to the Algerian news agency, that the measures of the presidential amnesty for journalists, includes a decrease of prison punishments or fines that were held against them for defamation, which is in the view of specialists, the cancellation of all punishments against journalists.
Courts and magistrate councils on the national territory were, yesterday, a stage for a collective judgements of journalists, where El Khabar has known that more than 217 cases were scheduled and which were concerned with the president decree despite some of them were scheduled for the coming October. In the magistrate council of Algiers and Sidi M’hammed court, some 67 cases were scheduled, most of them are concerned with the editor of El Khabar, Ali Djerri with 11 cases, and the editor Le Matin newspaper Mohammed Benchicou with 7 cases, and the editor of El Watan Omar Belhouchet with 8 cases, plus Liberte and Le Soir d’Algérie and all daily and weekly concerned newspapers.
From the treatment of the two president of the primary court, or the council, it was clear that orders were given to treat these cases immediately, in order to let journalists benefiting from the amnesty measures. The president was referring all cases to deliberations, despite, sometimes; the two parties of the case were absent.
Juridical sources unveiled to El Khabar that sentences will be moderate to the maximum, and we have known that no less than 17 cases were judged no- measures needed, and other cases judged by innocence, and others were end up with light fines.
