Paris (AFP)
Two journalists' organizations strongly condemned on Monday the withdrawal of accreditation in Algeria from the French news channel France 24, seeing it as a very serious attack on press freedom.
"It's a disaster" and "extremely worrying news", said the secretary general of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Anthony Bellanger, interviewed by AFP.
The IFJ, which had already called on the Algerian authorities, during the legislative elections of June 12, to respect press freedom and to release all journalists and other media employees in detention in the country, will work at the level international support for a diplomatic response, he added.
For its part, the press freedom NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) expressed concern on Twitter "about the severity and arbitrariness of this measure which will undoubtedly have a deterrent effect on others. international media ".
Algeria ranks 146th out of 180 countries in the world press freedom ranking established by RSF.
For its part, French diplomacy officially regretted Monday the decision of Algiers to withdraw the accreditation of France 24 and recalled its attachment to "freedom of the press".
Algeria had motivated this withdrawal on Sunday by the "manifest and repeated hostility" of the channel, which it had already warned in March for its coverage of the popular protest movement of Hirak.
A decision taken the day after early legislative elections marked by a high rate of abstention.
The news channel said Sunday was surprised "not to have received an explanation" for this withdrawal.
"Our coverage of Algerian news is done in transparency, independence and honesty," she said in a message read on air.
© 2021 AFP