Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-05-17-Speech-4-164"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2001-05-17"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Situation in Algeria2
dcterms:Language	"nl"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20010517.7.4-164"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2001-05-17-Speech-4-1652
lpv:speaker	lp:Bas Belder2
lpv:spokenAs	member; EDD (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3 unknown; Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij - Gereformeerd Politiek Verbond - Reformatorisch Politieke Federatie (1999-07-20--2002-03-17)3 member; Temporary committee on the Echelon interception system (2000-07-06--2001-09-05)3 member; Members from the European Parliament to the Joint Parliamentary Assembly of the Agreement between the African, Caribbean and Pacific States and the European Union (ACP-EU) (2000-10-05--2002-01-14)3 member; Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3 vice-chair; Delegation for relations with the United States (1999-07-22--2002-01-14)3 substitute; Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3
lpv:translated text	"Mr President, as an ex-journalist, freedom, as well as ethical responsibility, of the press are close to my heart. Islamic fundamentalists and state authorities threaten, and are determined, to extinguish the flame of the freedom of the press in Algeria. Nevertheless, it is still burning, despite the numerous killings and detentions among independent Algerian journalists. However, a tightening up of the clause on defamation in the Code of Criminal Procedure forms a fresh attempt on the part of the Algerian government to kill that flame. As a result, it is possible to lock up Algerian journalists more quickly and for longer. The extent to which the freedom of the press is at stake in Algeria is also patently obvious from the official resistance which the newspaper publisher, Omar Belhouchet, has experienced over the past couple of months when he imported a new printing press from Germany. His statement speaks volumes: ‘To Algeria, that piece of equipment represents a technological, but mainly a political, revolution. At long last, the state printing office can no longer prevent our publications. We have taken a portion of the power from those in power.’ How exactly? By not succumbing to the contempt of the citizens and their rights by the current regime, by openly defying the arbitrariness of political authorities, police and justice, which act in the interest of the ruling clans. The Algerians sum up this abhorrent government attitude in a single word: ‘hogra’. It is precisely this ‘hogra’, according to critical Algerian minds, that drove their own young people into the terrorist tentacles of the fundamentalists. ‘Hogra’ is, in other words, the key word in Algeria’s tragedy today. By way of healing social antidote to ‘hogra’, the Algerian independent press – referred to as ‘the incorruptibles’ at home – deserves the support of the European institutions. As and when possible, they must provide the vital oxygen for this pilot light of the Algerian freedom of press, not least during the negotiations involving the country’s authorities. For in the final analysis, only the independent press in Algeria raises the issues which are really preoccupying the minds of the citizens. And what does this country, weighed down by so much violence, need more than an honest, public, political debate?"@en1

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