In North Africa, investigative journalism, and even news coverage, is in short supply, endangered by states’ use of coercion, arbitrary prosecution and defamation. Over the last year, he has become a symbol of the struggle for civil liberties in Algeria and abroad. He was freed in February after 11 months in Kolea prison, and a month later the Supreme Court overturned his conviction. According to Drareni, Algeria is going through ‘one of the worst periods in its history’ in terms of freedom of the press. ‘In the media, we used to say that press freedom started to decline under Abdelaziz Bouteflika in 1999.

Source: The North Africa Journal July 01, 2021 14:15 UTC