Algerian Journalist deported from his own country
Algerian Journalist, Farid Alilat, was expelled from his country after flying in from France and being restricted from leaving the airport, reports Arab News Plus agencies.
Alilat, who has worked for the French language magazine, Jeune Afrique for 20 years, mentioned in a Facebook post on April 13th that he was kept in police custody for 11 hours at the airport. He was then boarded onto a plane and sent back to France, where he has a residency permit.
Within his lengthy post on Facebook, he alleged that the police officers on the tarmac in Algiers told him that they were acting on orders “from above.”
He detailed that he was interrogated about his travels, who he has been in contact with and about Jeune Afrique, which Algerian authorities believe favours their neighbour and regional rival, Morocco.
He further stressed in his Facebook post, “No one can be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter their own country.”
READ: Algeria: 4 journalists arrested in continuation of crackdown on dissent
Few politicians commented on Alilat’s expulsion as well as few Algerian media outlets. Abdelaziz Rahabi, former Communications Minister, called it “a measure from another era that serves neither the people nor the government.”
Despite living in France since 2004, Alilat explained that he regularly takes flights from Paris to Algiers, where his family resides. He has been a well-known journalist for years due to his work for French-language daily newspapers, including Liberté, which was shuttered in 2022 amid financial problems and struggles with the government and Algeria’s state-owned oil company, both of which are major adversities for the country’s newspapers.
This latest deportation comes after a long line of journalists who have been restricted by Algeria’s government from reporting in the North African country.
High-profile journalists such as editors Ihsane El Kadi and Mustapha Benjama remain in prison on charges related to using foreign funds to finance journalism and disrupting public order.
Many rights groups such as Amnesty International have called for the immediate release of many algerian Journlists calling it a “relentless” attack on freedom of expression on September 20th 2023.
READ: Rights groups call for the Release of Algerian Journalists
However, the government has also resumed granting authorisations to journalists to start new media outlets or television shows and last year passed a law enshrining new protections for journalists.
Similarly, Tunisia stated that it intends to prosecute those who criticise the President and the government on social media platforms.
Arab News/ Agencies
