Zeghileche’s sentencing comes on the heels of the August 10 conviction of Khaled Drareni, a correspondent for global press freedom group Reporters Without Borders and co-founder of the news website Casbah Tribune. Local press freedom advocate and editor-in-chief of Algerian newspaper and website Le Provincial, Mustapha Bendjama, told CPJ that “The press freedom climate has changed a lot under Tebboune, a change for the worse.”Freedom of expression had already contracted under the 20-year reign of Algeria’s former president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika. She told CPJ that he was targeted for operating his online radio show, Sabarcane, without a license, and for allegedly insulting the president on the show’s website. Now, that “hope has turned into a nightmare” press freedom advocate Mustapha Bendjama told CPJ, noting that the new president is “listening with a deaf ear” to the needs of Algeria’s journalists. “This does not promise a bright future for the press in Algeria,” she said.

Source: The North Africa Journal August 27, 2020 12:00 UTC