H.E. Abdelaziz Bouteflika
President
Presidence de la Republique
El-Mouradia
Algiers
Democratic & Popular Republic of Algeria
Fax: (011.213.2) 60.96.18
Your Excellency:
We write to protest your country@quot;s part in the continuing worldwide abuse of press freedom. On this day, World Press Freedom Day, there are — to the best of our knowledge — 193 journalists imprisoned in the jails of 29 countries, most of them solely for having done their jobs. Algeria is one of the 29 countries.
We are informed that despite Algeria@quot;s recent progress toward full democracy, two journalists are still held in Algerian prisons.
One is Djamel Eddine Fahassi, who has been missing since May 6, l995. Fahassi, a reporter for the state-run radio station, Alger Chaine III, was abducted in l995 near his home by well-dressed men carrying walkie-talkies. Before his disappearance, Fahassi had been arrested twice by the Algeria Government in the early l990@quot;s. He had written an article in Al-Forqane , the now-banned weekly of the Islamic Salvation Front , criticizing the conduct of security forces.
The second case is Aziz Bouabdallah, jailed since April 12, 1997. He also was abducted by armed men and put in an Algiers jail where, we understand, he was tortured. Due to strenuous efforts by his parents, two separate courts in 2000 dismissed all charges against him for lack of evidence. However, this journalist has not been released from jail and we have no news of his whereabouts.
Your Excellency, these journalists should be released both on principle and as a matter of expediency. The principle is stated in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As the Declaration states: “”Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.? U.N. members recognize that this right is sometimes inconvenient and troublesome. Yet, it is crucial to uphold, and for practical reasons as well as principle. A nation that stifles freedom of thought and expression forfeits the good opinion of the world and isolates itself. We are confident that Algeria does not intend to bring about such consequences.
The Overseas Press Club of America, an independent organization that has defended press freedom around the world for 65 years, urges you to confirm Algeria@quot;s belief in freedom of expression and to release the two journalists now in custody, Djamel Eddine Fahassi and Aziz Bouabdallah.
The courtesy of a reply would be appreciated.
Respectfully yours,
George Bookman
Norman Schorr
Freedom of the Press Committee