ALGIERS: Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has accused press watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) of working to âdestabiliseâ the country with its campaign against the jailing of its Algiers correspondent Khaled Drareni.
Rights groups have âtargetedâ Algeria âto sap the stability of the countryâ, he said in a meeting with local media representatives late Sunday.
âStates do not attack us head-on but put non-governmental organisations in charge of the task,â said the president, who singled out the France-based RSF for criticism.
Drareni, Casbah Tribune news website editor and correspondent for French-language TV5 Monde as well as RSF, was on September 15 handed a two-year jail sentence.
The 40-year-old was convicted over his coverage of the mass protest movement that toppled Algeriaâs longtime president Abdelaziz Bouteflika last year.
He was found guilty of âinciting an unarmed gatheringâ and âendangering national unityâ, a ruling that drew condemnation at home and abroad.
Tebboune insisted that ânobody is incarcerated (in Algeria) for an article they have writtenâ.
âWe forbid insults and attacks on issues related to state security,â the successor to Bouteflika said, without elaborating.
Tebboune said Drareni, whose name he avoided using in the encounter, had been sentenced for his âinvolvement in an affair that has nothing to do with the pressâ.
The journalist, according to Communications Minister Ammar Belhimer, had been working without a professional press card and was allegedly in the pay of âforeign embassiesâ.
âAbsurd, unfair and violentâ
After the verdict, RSF head Christophe Deloire said: âWe are outraged by the blind stubbornness of the Algerian judges who have just condemned (Drareni).
âKhaledâs detention proves the regime locks itself into a logic of absurd, unfair and violent repression,â he tweeted.
On Monday, around 150 people, including lawyers, opposition politicians and journalists, held their fifth weekly protest outside the Maison de la Presse, headquarters of most of the countryâs newspapers, to demand Drareniâs release.
Some held pictures of other political detainees, including journalist Abdelkrim Zeghileche.
âThe ruling against Khaled Drareni is a condemnation of the press,â said his lawyer Mustapha Bouchachi.
Algeria ranked 146 out of 180 countries in RSFâs 2020 World Press Freedom Index.
Deloire, contacted by AFP on Monday, dismissed the presidentâs charges against his organisation as âliesâ.
They âaim to cover up his difficulty in defending violations of press freedom that are absolutely obvious to millions of Algeriansâ, he said.
âWe operate in Algeria like we operate elsewhere, on the basis of principles that we defend everywhere, including France.â
Tebboune had on Sunday welcomed a âpositiveâ sign from Emmanuel Macron, president of Algeriaâs former colonial power France, despite the âcomplexâ outstanding issues between their countries.
Macron and some of his advisers had shown âreadiness and good faithâ toward resolving issues dating back to the colonial period and Algeriaâs war of independence.
Algeria on July 5 buried the remains of 24 resistance fighters returned by Paris. The North African state has also called for the handover of colonial archives. â AFP
