Q: Describe press freedom in Algeria
A: Journalists have limited experience… .Most have not graduated from university with degrees in journalism. Many journalists went to university to study sciences, architecture, literature… .In my case, I graduated from the school of architecture. I learned journalism by practice… .During the violent period in the 1990’s, when it was really hard to be journalists, all of us were targets of terrorists and it was very hard to practice journalism.
In the constitution and law, there is freedom of speech and freedom of press. But it’s still such pressure to journalists. From 1993 to 1997, for example, journalists were not allowed to write about specific terrorist attacks targeted against the military.
If we criticize the president or government or just write on terrorism…we will be put in jail and we will be prosecuted. Last May [2001], our government introduced an amendment to the Penal Code. Now if we criticize the president or military in a story, for example, we can receive very high fines or jail, or fines with jail, or just high fines, or just jail.
El Watan was stopped for two weeks when it published information about terrorist attacks against the military in 1992. And six journalists went to jail for one week.
Q: And were they the journalists who wrote the article?
A: No, the chief editor, editor and four journalists were put in jail because they didn’t give the name of the journalist who wrote the articles. But police and the lawyer found out who the journalist was. She was a woman, and she was prosecuted with the others.
She spent one week in jail, and after that, she left Algeria and now she’s our correspondent in Rome.
Journalists who write on political issues may, I think, write what they want. The government doesn’t care. But those journalists who write on corruption, on justice, they have problems with government. One of my colleagues has lots of trouble with the government, because she always does reports about corruption.
Q: What are the biggest challenges facing women in Algeria?
A: Inside the profession, there is no discrimination between a man and a woman. I mean, for equal responsibilities we have equal salaries. There is not discrimination at all, but society still does not understand the specificities of this job. Sometimes we have to stay late at the office and we need to travel. In my case, I have no problem with my family because my family is very open-minded and encouraged me to continue in this work. But society doesn’t accept that women, too, will be free. In Algeria there are family codes, and women still need to be…I don’t know how to say it in English, she’s not considered like a…
Q: She belongs to someone?
A: [She belongs to] her father, her husband or her brother, even if her brother is younger than her.
I care about what my family thinks about my job, but I don’t care about [what the larger society thinks]. I think there are many women like me in journalism in Algeria, because they manage to…have their place in this profession. Other women journalists are the same. They have the same challenge just to have a career in journalism.
They have trouble with their family if their family doesn’t help them to continue to improve themselves in this profession. But if we are aided by our families, it is easier.
Q: What’s the hardest thing for you in your profession?
A: Maybe to not have enough time to improve my private life. I mean, almost all women who work in the media have to choose between a normal family life or a great career in journalism.
Q: What are the conditions for journalists in Algeria?
A: Just for example, mobile phones. They’re too expensive. It’s necessary for us to have mobile phones, but almost all journalists don’t have them because it’s too expensive. And in some newspapers, journalists don’t have their own desks, so they share desks with two or three other people…. And also we have trouble with transportation. I spent two days in [The United States]Congress, and I was very surprised that journalists [who cover the] Congress have their own place with computers, with desks…. In [the Algerian] Parliament I just spend a day running, …and then I must call the office in order to send the car, and…I waste too much time just in waiting for the car, and I arrive at the office, and I hope that my desk is not occupied by another journalist, and then I must brief the chief editor about what happened in this day, and then I have sometimes less than one hour to write my article. I am very stressed because I need…to construct my story and to explain in a good way what happened and to give details. And sometimes I don’t have enough time to write my article in the way I want.