Algerian journalist and whistle-blower Noureddine Tounsi was sentenced Wednesday to a year in prison, one of his lawyers told AFP.
Detained since September, Tounsi had reported on social media on alleged wrongdoings at the port of Oran, in the country’s northwest.
Tounsi “was sentenced to a year behind bars by the court” in Oran, his lawyer Farid Khemisti wrote on Facebook.
Charges against him included “insulting the president of the republic” and “invasion of privacy,” local media reported.
However, he was acquitted of the charge of “communicating with foreign entities,” which would have led to his referral to a criminal court, the media added.
Meanwhile, Rabah Kareche, a correspondent for French-language newspaper Liberte in Tamanrasset, in Algeria’s far south, was placed in provisional detention for allegedly spreading false information “harmful to public security.”
His detention came after he published an article on a Tuareg protest movement in the area.
Liberte slammed what it called “false accusations that thinly veil the desire to silence the journalist and prevent him from carrying out his work objectively.”
Reporters Without Borders ranked Algeria 146 out of 180 countries and territories in its 2021 World Press Freedom Index.
According to Algerian Detainees, a journalist-run website, 66 prisoners of conscience are currently incarcerated in the country, some in connection with the Hirak movement.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, for its part, urged the Algerian authorities to free Kareche and drop their investigation.
