The Algerian independent press is facing an existential crisis.

Many titles, created when the media landscape opened up to the private sector in the late 1980s, have been forced to cease publication in recent decades.

This was the case of the French-language daily "Le Matin" in 2004, or even one of the jewels of the independent press, "Liberté", which went out of business last April.

"Financial and economic" reasons got the better of the daily which belonged to the wealthy businessman Issad Rebrab.

Employees of "Liberté" have tried to buy the title, but Issad Rebrab rejected this option for reasons described by some as "political".

Two months later, while the shock of the liquidation of "Liberté" is still not absorbed, a new shock comes to shake the world of Algerian journalism.

Deprived of advertising windfalls, the prestigious French-language daily El Watan, which appeared in Algeria in 1990, also finds itself in great difficulty.

Its financial income has been significantly reduced since the National Publishing and Advertising Agency (Anep), the state advertising distributor, unilaterally terminated its contract, under the presidency of Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

At the same time, the newspaper had decided not to support a fourth term for the president.

The authorities then put pressure on public and private companies – Algerian or foreign – not to buy advertising space in the pages of the French-speaking daily because of its “independent” editorial line.

To the point of moving, little by little, towards a closure of El Watan.

Cyclical strike after several months without pay

Faced with such a prospect, the daily's employees decided on a two-day cyclical strike, starting on July 13 and 14, in order to protest against "the non-payment of wages" for several months.

In an article published on the front page of the newspaper on Tuesday, July 12, the board of directors of El Watan sounded the alarm about the financial situation of the title founded by a group of journalists.

"For the 150 employees, the social situation has become critical and has exceeded the threshold of tolerance, especially since the horizons are blocked to hope for a way out of the financial strangulation that the company is undergoing", he warned. .

The board of directors also criticized the decision of the tax administration and the Crédit Populaire d'Algérie (CPA) "to freeze the accounts of the company despite the continuous attempts to find a solution to the problem", not without specifying that " the many appeals to the public authorities have remained in vain".

The tax administration and the Algerian bank are demanding payment of the arrears of the tax debt dating back to the period of the pandemic, when the power had allowed companies to defer the payment of their taxes.

Contacted by France 24, a journalist from the editorial staff of El Watan, who prefers to remain anonymous, describes "an atmosphere of sadness in the corridors of the newspaper".

And to add: "All the scenarios came to mind to imagine the end of an old newspaper like ours, except that of a closure for financial reasons".

He confides that "the journalists fully understand the situation and have accepted not to receive their salary for five months, but their patience has limits."

The same journalist is critical of the daily's owners, pointing out that "for years, their mismanagement has led to an accumulation of debts".

The management denounces the tax administration

"The journalists and employees of El Watan went on strike without conviction because they love this daily and have worked there for years, he continues. But after a long wait, its owners have not sought to resolve the crisis, so they decided to stop work"

Other initiatives will be taken from next week in the event of non-payment of wages, he warned.

El Watan will not appear tomorrow and after tomorrow, due to a cyclical strike movement, in protest against the non-payment of their salaries for 4 months.

Press release from the company union.

pic.twitter.com/QAW20QuSAb

— Salima Tlemcani (@tlemcani_salima) July 12, 2022

In a press release published on July 12 on social networks, the trade union branch of the newspaper underlines that the employees "note with regret that in addition to its inability to find a way out of the crisis, the Management does not offer any serious dialogue to the social partner ".

Mohamed Tahar Messaoudi, the current director of the newspaper, explained to the Middle East Eye site that "it is the tax administration which refused to give a deadline for paying taxes and debts".

What made the situation worse, he said, was "the refusal of the company's bank to lend the newspaper enough money to pay the salaries of the employees".

Describing the bank's decision as "unjustified" because the newspaper "still held financial assets which could enable it to pay its debts", Mohamed Tahar Messaoudi called on the strikers to "open a constructive dialogue with the administration".

"Freedom of the press faces many red lines"

After the fall of the Abdelaziz Bouteflika regime in 2019, the bosses of El Watan breathed a sigh of relief and hoped for the return of the advertising windfall.

Except that an article accusing the sons of General Ahmed Gaïd Salah, pillar of the system then in power in Algeria, of corruption, put an end to the dream of reviving the newspaper and getting it out of its financial agony, according to the Middle East Eye site.

If the situation of El Watan is very worrying, other media are also threatened with extinction.

Several associations for the defense of human rights and freedom of the press, such as Reporters Without Borders (RSF), have constantly sounded the alarm about the situation of the media in Algeria, where "the landscape media has never been so deteriorated."

RSF writes on the page of its site dedicated to Algeria that "the private sector has been suffering since 2019, and several media and television channels have had to close, in particular because the press organs are deprived of advertising".

In addition, state subsidies are only granted to public media or private media close to the regime, recalls the NGO. 

Even "the freedom of the press is confronted with many red lines" according to her, since "the simple fact of evoking corruption and the repression of demonstrations can lead to journalists being threatened and arrested". 

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