Badr Tadlaoui
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12:43 – June 24, 2024
The independent media group led by Algerian journalist Ihsane El Kadi, imprisoned since the end of 2022, ceased its activities on June 19 after the dissolution of the publishing company by the Algerian courts, a few weeks before the presidential election on September 7.
Strangely, the representative of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in North Africa, the Algerian journalist Khaled Drareni, accustomed to thunderous proclamations, reacted only lukewarmly to this announcement, repeating on his X account (ex-Twitter) the press release from Radio M. A silence that speaks volumes as the Algerian regime, determined to put an end to the opposing voices, had initially seized the equipment of the station founded in 2013 and sealed its premises.
Before a year, in 2023, the Algiers Court of Appeal increased Ihsane El Kadi’s sentence, sentencing him to seven years in prison, including five years without suspension. At first instance, Mr. El Kadi, prosecuted for “foreign financing of your business», had received five years in prison, including three years in prison. Mr. El Kadi, known for his bold tone, was the head of one of Algeria’s last independent alternative media groups – which includes Radio M and the Maghreb Émergent news site – before his arrest on spurious charges, late 2022.
He was accused by the regime of “of having received sums of money and privileges from individuals and organizations in the country and abroad in order to engage in activities likely to undermine state security and its stability», improvised and retained incriminations against the regime’s pet peeves. The courts also recorded the dissolution of his company Interface Médias and the confiscation of all its seized assets, in addition to heavy fines imposed.
As a reminder, according to the latest ranking from the NGO Reporters Without Borders, Algeria fell three places in 2024 in terms of press freedom, positioning itself at 139th position out of 180 countries audited, an index hotly contested by individuals who have become megaphones for Algerian theses, like Ali Lmrabet who openly announced the suspension of all collaboration with RSF.
