Report on the Hirak: M6 rejects Algeria's accusations

Demonstration in support of the Hirak protest movement, in Paris on July 5, 2020. FRANCOIS GUILLOT / AFP

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This Monday evening, the Algerian ministry of communication announced no longer authorizing the French television channel to operate in the country, and threatened with criminal prosecution.

The day before, M6 had broadcast the documentary "Algeria, the country of all revolts" in the program Enquête exclusive.

Algiers castigates "insipid testimonies", "the most reductive clichés" and "a sum of shallow anecdotes", and accuses M6 of having used a "false authorization to shoot" and of having "executed a diary aimed at harm the image of Algeria ”.

The chain, it defends the team, which has, she assures, "worked in the respect of the ethical principles of their profession".

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Has the production company commissioned by M6 sneaked in Algeria?

The answer is no, according to the channel.

In a press release published on Tuesday afternoon, she claims to have received on May 21, 2018 an authorization for a film showing " 

 ", via the monitoring of three young Algerians, sometimes with a hidden camera.

An authorization extended four times during filming, from April to October 2019.

During this period, insists the channel, " 

 " after presenting these documents.

The only authorization rejected, according to M6, a request to shoot a set with the presenter Bernard de La Villardière in Oran.

Plateau which was therefore not produced.

Stakeholders threatened

The Algerian Ministry of Communication assured this Monday that the people filmed had contacted the French Superior Council of Audiovisual, in order to denounce a " 

 ".

But this Tuesday evening, the CSA was not able to confirm having been seized.

The channel says it does not want to speculate on the reasons that prompted one of the speakers, Noor, a beauty influencer very followed on social networks, published a text in which she regrets her participation.

But M6 argues that last May, people appearing in another documentary broadcast on France 5 had done the same after receiving very many and violent threats.

Freedom of expression " 

For its part, Reporters Without Borders denounces the " 

 " brought by Algiers, accusations arising in a " 

 " for press freedom in Algeria, and sees them as an act of " 

 " and an " 

 ”.

RSF also notes that when the report was broadcast on M6 this Sunday evening, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune was interviewed on several Algerian television channels, assuring that freedom of expression was " 

 " in the country.

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French channel M6 banned from filming in Algeria