US embassy cable - 05ALGIERS1242

UNCLAS ALGIERS 001242 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, PGOV, AG, Press Freedom 
SUBJECT: MORE JOURNALISTS SENTENCED TO PRISON IN NEW "BLACK 
TUESDAY" 
 
REF: ALGIERS 1149 
 
1. Three journalists were sentenced June 14 for defamation in 
separate cases before the local Algiers tribunal.  The 
cartoonist Ali Dilem of Liberte newspaper was sentenced to 
six months in prison and a DA 250,000 ($3,400) fine, while 
the journalist Kamel Amarni and the publication director 
Fouad Boughanem of Le Soir d'Algerie were sentenced to six 
and two months, respectively.  Each was also fined DA 
250,000.  This is Boughanem's and Amarni's second sentencing 
(ref A) since receiving two-month sentences and DA 250,000 
fines in May, which they are appealing. These criminal trials 
for defamation took place May 31 and culminated in 
yesterday's sentencing. 
 
2. Amarni and Boughanem from Le Soir d'Algerie were sentenced 
for Amarni's 2003 article entitled "The Coup," in which the 
reporter wrote that then-presidential candidate Abdelaziz 
Bouteflika "was using the state's means for electoral 
purposes." 
 
3. Dilem was sentenced for drawing a cartoon in which he 
criticized army generals.  The cartoon alluded to a telethon 
organized after the 2001 Bab El-Oued floods in Algiers.  One 
man in the cartoon says, "It seems that even generals have 
donated to the telethon."  The other replies, "Those are not 
called donations; they're restitutions!"  The cartoon implies 
that generals were returning money to the state that had been 
unlawfully taken.  (Note: The former publication director of 
Liberte, Abrous Toudert, was acquitted of similar charges.) 
 
4. There are currently two Algerian journalists in prison and 
nine sentenced to prison terms while awaiting appeal, 
including the earlier appeals of Boughanem and Amarni.  These 
journalists have all been convicted for defamation under the 
penal code, in these cases for defamation against government 
officials. 
 
ERDMAN