Algeria Parliament Bans Foreign News Outlet Owners

The Algerian People’s National Assembly (the lower chamber of parliament) approved on March 28th a new media law that bans foreign nationals from financing local media and also prevents Algerians who are dual nationals from creating news organisations, reports Reuters.

The voting took place after a week of parliamentary discussions that did not produce significant changes in the text submitted by the government.

The Algerian People’s National Assembly (PNA) is controlled by parties that are part of the ruling presidential coalition.

According to a statement put out by the chamber, “The law won the majority of votes during a plenary session held on the same day”. The statement did not give more details about the exact breakdown of the votes among its 462 members.

The Culture and Communication Committee in the PNA, which is controlled by the pro-government majority, revealed that it had rejected a number of proposed amendments put forward by the deputies, including a proposal to establish the neutrality of the ministry of communication and assign the task of granting permits for the creation of new press institutions to a regulatory authority instead of the ministry.

Parliamentarians also backtracked on an amendment that would have allowed Algerians with dual nationalities to establish media outlets in Algeria, after the government pressured the committee studying the law into blocking it and reinstating Article 4 as stipulated by the government draft, which prohibits dual nationals from establishing media organisations.

The committee justified its move saying it wanted to “block hostile parties to Algeria that are looking for the opportunity to invest in the media so as to interfere in the country’s internal affairs, in a way that infringes on national sovereignty.”

It went on to say that its decision would buttress  “Algerian identity” including religious tenets, Arabic language and “our values and our culture in light of the profound transformations that our society is currently going through” and the threat it saw posed  by “beliefs, ideas and cultures alien to Algerian society.”.

At the end of the session, the parliamentary bloc of the “Society of Peace” (Hams) movement , the largest Islamist party in Algeria, declared “its opposition to the draft (media law),” noting that “its deputies (65) voted against it.”

The movement’s statement explained the deputies’ opposition to the law was triggered by the lack of prior consultation about the bill with “concerned journalists and academics.”

It said it regretted that the parliament had rejected “most of the amendment proposals submitted by MPs (of its parliamentary group), including those  consecrating the right of Algerians living abroad to establish media projects in the country.”