Journalist Khaled Drareni, a representative in Algeria of Reporters without Borders, who also owns the news site Casbah Tribune, was arrested and then released. What do the Algerian authorities blame him for?
Since February 2019, he has been very active and makes the whole world follow the events taking place in Algeria. Since the beginning of the dispute that led to the fall of the former Algerian head of state, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in the election, on December 12, of the new President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, through the multiple arrests, the journalist Khaled Drareni provides great media coverage that attracts attention and interests an ever-growing readership.
Except that the work of collecting and processing information carried out by the representative of Reporters without Borders, also owner of the information site Casbah Tribune, which, obviously, is not always favorable to the Algerian authorities, seems to bother the highest summit of the Algerian state. As evidenced by the latest events in this North African country, as described by Khaled Drareni, which remains one of the most followed in Algeria and around the world.
The full message of Khaled Drareni
” Good evening everyone,
This Thursday, January 9, 2020 at 3:22 p.m., two officers came to my house at rue Didouche Mourad and took me (of my own free will) to a place located in Hydra, I stayed there until 11:00 p.m.
All I can say is that I was told it was the “last warning” and asked to stop making “subversive tweets” and stop “misleading” public opinion ”under pain of legal proceedings.
I signed at the end a report which sanctioned this interrogation by affixing an imprint of my left index finger (it is always better than the blue imprint).
The only real violence I have suffered is that my patriotism is called into question, when we were a hundred meters from the rue Mohamed Drareni (my paternal uncle).
Thank you for worrying about me and see you tomorrow. ”
A message that speaks volumes about the will of the new Algerian authorities to silence any discordant voice and put everyone in the ranks. Even journalists? A task that may not be easy for the all-new Algerian President and his government, however.
