By underestimating Reporters Without Borders’ invitation to respect freedom of the press and to release the prisoners of conscience led by journalist El Kadi Ihsane, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune received a real blow this morning club on learning of the vote of the resolution of the European Parliament going in the same direction.
This resolution not only reminds the Algerian rulers that their violations of freedoms constitute a concern for the whole of Europe, but, more seriously still, it confirms the isolation of Algiers on the international scene. With only 4 votes who voted against this resolution while 536 voted for, we can see that the Algerian regime does not have many friends, not to say has no friends at all. The Algerian regime, in truth, customers but not friends. It is serious for Tebboune and his team who keep claiming that Algerian diplomacy has regained its former glory.
For its part, RSF welcomed this resolution through the pen of its EU representative Julie Majorczak who wrote: “With this resolution, the European Parliament has shown that it does not intend to remain silent in the face of the repression of the last independent media in Algeria, even though this country is an important economic partner. As Ihsane El Kadi’s appeal must be heard in the coming days, we urge the European Commission and EU Member States to do everything possible to ensure that this journalist regains his freedom. The Algerian authorities must realize that muzzling the media is a dangerous path which, in the long term, will not be to their advantage”.
In the coming days, we can expect a salvo which will come, this time, from the UN Human Rights Council and the High Commission for Human Rights of the United Nations. who are going to denounce the list published some time ago in the official gazette of journalists, politicians and bloggers qualified as terrorists.
Hard times have begun for Algerian generals who believe they enjoy impunity in the concert of nations by blackmailing with their gas since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war.