Omar Belhouchet

Omar Belhouchet (born 9 February 1954 in Sétif[1]) is an Algerian journalist who has been prosecuted by his government on numerous occasions. He publishes the daily newspaper El Watan (English: "The Nation"), which he founded in 1990 after he and nineteen colleagues left the FLN government-owned newspaper El Moudjahid (English: "The Holy Warrior").[2]

Contents

Journalism

After receiving a degree in economics from the University of Algiers, Belhouchet went to work for Algérie Presse Service and then El Moudjahid. In 1990, he left the paper to found the independent El Watan.[3]

In an interview with the Committee to Protect Journalists, 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.[3][4] He reports being threatened by Islamic militants more than 100 times,[3] and according to the New York Times, has "narrowly escaped" two assassination attempts.[5] 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;[1] Belhouchet escaped by dropping low in the seat and gunning the accelerator.[6] Islamist militants were suspected to be responsible.[1]

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.[4] 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+ and TF1: "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."[4]

In 2006, Belhouchet protested the banning of the Pop Idol-like show Star Academy 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."[7]

Belhouchet lost a defamation suit in 2008 to a faith healer that he and El Watan reporter Salima Tlemçani had alleged to be a fraud; both were imprisoned for three months.[8] The International Federation of Journalists issued a press release protesting the conviction as "another attempt by the powerful to silence investigative journalism by means of judicial interference".[8] In 2009, Reporters Without Borders 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.[9]

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,[10] and the following year, he won the annual press freedom prize of the International Federation of Newspaper Publishers.[11] He has also won the Maghreb Liberty Prize, the Golden Pen of the World Association of Newspapers[12], the Rob Bakker Memorial Award in 1997, and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Human Rights Award in 1998. In 2000, the International Press Institute selected him as one of 50 "press heroes" of press freedom of the past half-century.[3]

When UNESCO Director-General Federico Mayor protested one of Belhouchet's arrests, he also praised Belhouchet as "a journalist known for his professional competence and his devotion to press freedom".[13]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Omar Belhouchet". International Press Institute. http://www.freemedia.at/Heroes_IPIReport2.00/03Belhouc.htm. Retrieved 28 May 2011. 
  2. ^ Youssef M. Ibrahim (26 July 1991). "Algeria in Ferment – A Special Report; In Algeria, Hope for Democracy but Not Economy". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/26/world/algeria-ferment-special-report-algeria-hope-for-democracy-but-not-economy.html. Retrieved 28 May 2011. 
  3. ^ a b c d "Omar Belhouchet, Chief Editor of El Watan – Algeria". European Commission. http://ec.europa.eu/development/services/events/EDD2008/SpeakerID27098_en.htm. Retrieved 28 May 2011. 
  4. ^ a b c Joel Campagna (March 1999). "Siege Mentality: Press Freedom and the Algerian Conflict". Committee to Protect Journalists. http://www.cpj.org/attacks98/1998/mideast/AlgeriaSR.html. Retrieved 27 May 2011. 
  5. ^ Youssef M. Ibrahim (31 May 1995). "With 46th Algerian Journalist Slain, It's a Furtive Vocation". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/31/world/with-46th-algerian-journalist-slain-it-s-a-furtive-vocation.html. Retrieved 28 May 2011. 
  6. ^ Kim Murphy (27 December 1993). "Algeria's New Lessons in War Imperil Region". The Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/1993-12-27/news/mn-5970_1_civil-war/4. Retrieved 28 May 2011. 
  7. ^ "Pop idol pulled from Algerian TV". BBC News. 9 February 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4696866.stm. Retrieved 27 May 2011. 
  8. ^ a b "Court hands down three-month sentences to two journalists in defamation case". International Federation of Journalists. 23 December 2008. http://www.ifex.org/algeria/2008/12/23/court_hands_down_three_month_sentences/. Retrieved 28 May 2011. 
  9. ^ "Authorities harass "El Watan" editor Omar Belhouchet". Reporters Without Borders. 21 March 2009. http://www.ifex.org/algeria/2009/03/23/authorities_harass_el_watan_editor/. Retrieved 27 May 2011. 
  10. ^ "Journalists Receive 1996 Press Freedom Awards". Committee to Protect Journalists. 1996. http://www.cpj.org/attacks96/frontmatter/ipfa.html. Retrieved 28 May 2011. 
  11. ^ "WORLD BRIEFS : For the Record". The New York Times. 8 February 1994. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/08/news/08iht-briefs_51.html. Retrieved 28 May 2011. 
  12. ^ http://www.wan-ifra.org/articles/2011/03/24/about-the-golden-pen-of-freedom
  13. ^ "Federico Mayor Dismayed by Sentencing of Algerian Journalist Omar Belhouchet". UNESCO. 6 November 1997. http://www.unesco.org/bpi/eng/unescopress/97-206e.htm. Retrieved 27 May 2011. 

See also