Omar Belhouchet
Encyclopedia
Omar Belhouchet is a town in northeastern Algeria. It is the capital of Sétif Province and it has a population of 239,195 inhabitants as of the 1998 census. Setif is located to the east of Algiers and is the second most important Wilaya after the country's capital. It is 1,096 meters above sea...
) is an Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
n journalist who has been prosecuted by his government on numerous occasions. He publishes the daily newspaper El Watan
El Watan
El Watan is an independent newspaper in Algeria. The paper was founded in 1990 after Omar Belhouchet and nineteen colleagues left the FLN government-owned newspaper El Moudjahid ....
(English: "The Nation"), which he founded in 1990 after he and nineteen colleagues left the FLN
National Liberation Front (Algeria)
The National Liberation Front is a socialist political party in Algeria. It was set up on November 1, 1954 as a merger of other smaller groups, to obtain independence for Algeria from France.- Anticolonial struggle :...
government-owned newspaper El Moudjahid
El Moudjahid
El Moudjahid is an Algerian French language newspaper. It was originally conceived as an FLN guerrilla information bulletin during the 1954-62 Algerian War, circulated among resistance fighters...
(English: "The Holy Warrior").
Journalism
After receiving a degree in economics from the University of AlgiersUniversity of Algiers
The University of Algiers Benyoucef Benkhedda is a university located in Algiers, Algeria. It was founded in 1909 and is organized into seven faculties.-History:...
, Belhouchet went to work for Algérie Presse Service and then El Moudjahid
El Moudjahid
El Moudjahid is an Algerian French language newspaper. It was originally conceived as an FLN guerrilla information bulletin during the 1954-62 Algerian War, circulated among resistance fighters...
. In 1990, he left the paper to found the independent El Watan
El Watan
El Watan is an independent newspaper in Algeria. The paper was founded in 1990 after Omar Belhouchet and nineteen colleagues left the FLN government-owned newspaper El Moudjahid ....
.
In an interview with the Committee to Protect Journalists
Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent nonprofit organisation based in New York City that promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists.-History:A group of U.S...
, he estimated that between 1993 and 1997, he faced thirty legal actions initiated by Algerian officials, sometimes requiring him to appear in court two or three times a week. He reports being threatened by Islamic militants more than 100 times, and according to the New York Times, has "narrowly escaped" two assassination attempts. One of these attempts occurred in 1993, when an assailant fired a machine gun at his car while he was driving his children to school; Belhouchet escaped by dropping low in the seat and gunning the accelerator. Islamist militants were suspected to be responsible.
In 1997, El Watan published an investigation into the suffocation death of 32 prisoners during the tenure of Justice Minister Muhammad Adami; Adami resigned several weeks after the article's publication. In November of that year, Belhouchet was convicted of "harming state institutions" and sentenced to one year in prison for a 1995 remark he made to French television stations Canal+
Canal+
Canal+ is a French premium pay television channel launched in 1984. It is 80% owned by the Canal+ Group, which in turn is owned by Vivendi SA. The channel broadcasts several kinds of programming, mostly encrypted...
and TF1
TF1
TF1 is a national French TV channel, controlled by TF1 Group, whose major share-holder is Bouygues. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network...
: "There are journalists that embarrass the authorities. I would not be surprised if tomorrow I found out that some of my colleagues were murdered by men in power."
In 2006, Belhouchet protested the banning of the Pop Idol
Pop Idol
Pop Idol is a British television series which debuted on ITV on 6 October 2001. The show was a talent contest to decide the best new young pop singer in the United Kingdom, based on viewer voting and participation. Two series were broadcast - one in 2001-02 and a second in 2003...
-like show Star Academy
Star Academy
Star Academy is a highly successful television show format based on the Spanish format "Operación Triunfo" produced by Endemol, that has been broadcast in over 50 countries...
from Algerian television in the face of Islamist protest, stating, "Today, they ban television shows. Tomorrow they will brain-wash the population, in the name of Islam."
Belhouchet lost a defamation suit in 2008 to a faith healer
Faith Healer
Faith Healer is a play by Brian Friel about the life of faith healer Francis Hardy as monologued through the shifting memories of Hardy, his wife, Grace, and stage manager, Teddy.-Synopsis:...
that he and El Watan reporter Salima Tlemçani had alleged to be a fraud; both were imprisoned for three months. The International Federation of Journalists
International Federation of Journalists
International Federation of Journalists, IFJ, is a global union federation of journalists' trade unions—the largest in the world. The organization aims to protect and strengthen the rights and freedoms of journalists...
issued a press release protesting the conviction as "another attempt by the powerful to silence investigative journalism by means of judicial interference". In 2009, Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...
issued a protest on Belhouchet's behalf after judicial police reportedly summoned him for interrogation on defamation charges fourteen times in the space of a few weeks.
International recognition
Belhouchet's work has received praise, awards, and support from numerous press freedom organizations. In 1993, he won the International Press Freedom Award of the Committee to Protect Journalists, and the following year, he won the annual press freedom prize of the International Federation of Newspaper Publishers. He has also won the Maghreb Liberty Prize, the Golden Pen of the World Association of NewspapersWorld Association of Newspapers
The World Association of Newspapers is a non-profit, non-governmental organization made up of 76 national newspaper associations, 12 news agencies, 10 regional press organisations and individual newspaper executives in 100 countries...
, the Rob Bakker Memorial Award in 1997, and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Human Rights Award in 1998. In 2000, the International Press Institute
International Press Institute
International Press Institute is a global organisation dedicated to the promotion and protection of press freedom and the improvement of journalism practices. Founded in October 1950, the IPI has members in over 120 countries....
selected him as one of 50 "press heroes" of press freedom of the past half-century.
When UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
Director-General Federico Mayor
Federico Mayor
Federico Mayor Zaragoza is a Spanish scientist, scholar, politician, diplomat and poet. He served as Director-General of UNESCO from 1987 to 1999.He is currently the Chairman of the Foundation for a Culture of Peace and member of the Honorary Board of the International Decade for the Promotion of...
protested one of Belhouchet's arrests, he also praised Belhouchet as "a journalist known for his professional competence and his devotion to press freedom".
See also
- Censorship in AlgeriaCensorship in AlgeriaThe working conditions of journalists in Algeria have evolved since the 1962 independence. After 1990, the Code of Press was suppressed, allowing for greater freedom of press. However, with the civil war in the 1990s, more than 70 journalists were assassinated, either by security forces or by...