The director and editor-in-chief of an Algerian news website were arrested by security services under the orders of General Said Chengriha, after the publication of a report in which entrepreneurs from the south of the country criticize the authorities, an NGO defending the detainees reported on Friday.
Omar Ferhat, director of the Algeria Scoop website, and Sofiane Ghirous, editor-in-chief, were placed in provisional detention on Thursday, according to the National Committee for the Liberation of Detainees (CNLD).
According to this source, their imprisonment follows the broadcast of a video on the site showing two entrepreneurs from the south of the country protesting against their “marginalization” during a ceremony on innovation organized Tuesday in Algiers, and chaired by the Minister of Training and Vocational Education, Yacine Merabi.
The two journalists are accused of “inciting hate speech and spreading hate speech,” the CNLD said. A third journalist from Algeria Scoop was placed under judicial supervision.
According to the latest Reporters Without Borders ranking, Algeria has fallen three places in 2024 regarding press freedom, now ranking 139th out of 180 countries evaluated. RSF deplored the “pressure on independent media” and the “threats and arrests” of journalists for having “simply mentioned corruption or the repression of demonstrations”.
According to Western analysts, General Said Chengriha and President Abdelmadjid Tebboune are accused of muzzling the press and disregarding human rights in Algeria.