Press Freedom Day: the Ihsane El Kadi case at the center of a Tebboune-RSF exchange
Finally, it was not to a press conference but to a lunch at the headquarters of the presidency that the Algerian press and foreign media were invited on May 3, International Press Freedom Day.
Present at the ceremony, Khaled Drareni, representative of the organization "Reporters Without Borders" (RSF) was instructed to deliver a letter from RSF to the Head of State with 3 demands: the release of Ihsane El Kadi, the proceedings against him and the proceedings against the company he founded, Interface Médias. During the verbal exchange with Abdelmajid Tebboune, courteous and constructive according to him, he repeatedly reiterated the request for the release of Ihsane El Kadi. Relying on justice in the journalist's case, President Tebboune apparently paid attention to Khaled Drareni's plea on RSF's role. Does this apparent thaw in the usually troubled relationship between the NGO and the Algerian authorities bode well for a possible upcoming visit to Algeria by the first RSF official? The prospect of the state visit to France announced for June would not take umbrage.
But for Ihsane El Kadi, this sequence of presidential communication puts an end to persistent rumors that have circulated in the past 24 hours about appeasement measures against him, or even his release. As a reminder, the appeal trial of Ihsane El Kadi is scheduled for May 21. The verdict will then say more about the real intentions of the political power to appease or not its conflictual and brutal relationship with the independent press or what remains of it. For the time being, the press laws recently voted by the Algerian parliament do not take the path of freedoms.
Salah Goudjil and Khaled Drareni during the lunch given by Abdelmadjid Tebboune on May 3
Source : websites