SECTOR 1 1.2 The right to freedom of expression is practised and citizens, including journalists, are asserting their rights without fear. Panel members unanimously agreed that freedom of expression has regressed over the past few years in Algeria. Public demonstrations have been officially banned in Algeria since 18 June 2001. The central government had at the time taken this measure in response to the bloody riots that occurred in the spring of 2001 in Kabylia and following the famous march organised by the Berber community on 14 June in Algiers. Coming from all parts of the country and particularly from the Kabyle region, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the capital city to submit to the Office of the President a series of demands referred to as the El Kseur platform consisting of fifteen “non negotiable” demands from the Berber community. These events and the violent repression that followed cost the lives of almost 130 people including two journalists, who were killed accidentally while covering the protest of 14 June. The panel also mentioned the case of the journalist Abdelhaï Belliardouh, who, following an article published in El Watan on 20 July 2002, was beaten infront of his family, dragged onto the streets and tortured for having implicated the Chair of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Nememchas (Eastern part of Algeria) in terrorism financing and money laundering activities of the armed Islamic groups (GIA). According to a communiqué from El Watan (Abdelhaï Belliardouh was head of their office at Tébessa), neither the police nor the gendarmerie came to the rescue of the tortured journalist. Humiliated and marked for life, Abdelhaï Belliardouh attempted to commit suicide on 19 October 2002 by drinking undiluted acid before succumbing to his injuries a month later in an Algiers hospital, where he was admitted. “They exercise this right without fear maybe. But without risk-That is a different issue” Journalists also paid a heavy price during the political turbulences in the 90s. A total of 110 journalists and others working in the profession were assassinated by “Islamist terrorists” between 1993 and 1997. With 32 victims, Algeria occupies the 6th position (just behind Irak, Russia, Colombia, Philippines and India) in the ranking established in 2007 regarding the number of journalists killed during the ten-year period from 1996 to 2005 (source: www.almanach-dz.com). Other than the threats to the physical integrity of journalists, the panel noted that fear has now become economic in nature. The government, through the ANEP (National Communication, Edition and Advertisement Agency), uses the placement of advertisement contracts, particularly public sector contracts, to bring the media to heel. 14 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER ALGERIA 2009