President Abdelaziz Bouteflika
Algiers, Algeria

5 March 2008

Your Excellency,

We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 102 countries, to vehemently protest the condemnation of Omar Belhouchet, publisher of El Watan, and columnist Chawki Amari, to two months in prison for defamation.

On 4 March 2008, an appeals court in Jijel upheld a lower court decision against Mr Belhouchet and Mr Amari. In addition to the jail sentence, they were ordered to pay one million dinars in damages to the Prefect of Jijel for comments made in a column published in El Watan in June 2006.

We respectfully remind you that the criminal law is a wholly inappropriate means of dealing with the issue of defamation and that such practice contravenes a number of international agreements. We believe that a civil award of reasonable damages is adequate and appropriate relief in all proven cases of defamation.

We respectfully remind you that Mr Belhouchet, the 1994 laureate of the WAN Golden Pen of Freedom, is a well-known and respected member of the international community of newspapers and that El Watan is a participant in the Arab Newspaper Development Programme, designed to strengthen independent newspapers in the Arab world. The prosecution of Mr Belhouchet and Mr Amari seriously damages the international reputation of Algeria.

We respectfully call on you to do everything in your power to ensure that all charges of criminal defamation are dropped. We urge you to take all necessary steps to ensure that defamation is decriminalised in your country as soon as possible. Yours sincerely,

Gavin O’Reilly
President
World Association of Newspapers

George Brock
President
World Editors Forum

Cc: Tayeb Belaïz, Minister of Justice

WAN is the global organization for the newspaper industry, with formal representative status at the United Nations, UNESCO and the Council of Europe. The organization groups 18,000 newspapers in 102 countries, 12 news agencies and 11 regional and world-wide press groups. WAN is non-governmental and non-profit.