On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day being celebrated on 3 May, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has promised a review of the country’s law on information which has been in force since 1990. Speaking on national television, Bouteflika said the State should do its best to facilitate and promote journalism in a bid to improve the profession.
The new law will take into account strides made through information and communication technologies and the development of new processes in training and improving services. Bouteflika also called on journalists to use the press as a ‘tool to preserve democracy and its noble values’, ading ‘Journalists must be effective in their work and shun attempts to use them as tools of destabilization,’ he said.
During his first two terms, from 1999 to 2009, relations between the Algerian Head of State and the press were tense with the president accusing the press of spreading rumours about his private life and the way the State affairs were conducted.