ALGIERS: An Algerian journalist has been expelled from the country after arriving from France and not being permitted to leave the airport without giving any explanation from police authorities.
Farid Alilat, a writer for the French-language magazine Jeune Afrique, in a post on social media platform said he had to spend 11 hours at the airport in police custody on Saturday before being sent back to France.
The journalist who has French residency said he regularly takes flights from Paris to Algiers to make reports on Algeria, where he been a well-known journalist because of his work for French-language daily newspapers including Liberté.
In a lengthy post about his deportation, Alilat alleged that police officers in Algiers told him that they were acting on orders from above.
He said he was asked to provide his travels details, and his meeting with Jeune Afrique, which according to Algerian authorities favors their regional rival and neighbor Morocco.
Some Algerian media outlets also reported on Alilat’s deportation and few politicians commented on it. Former Communications Minister Abdelaziz Rahabi termed the action a measure that serves neither the people nor the government.
He wrote on Facebook that no one can be deprived of the right to enter their homeland.
This is the latest instance of Algeria’s government barring journalists from reporting in Algeria and comes while high-profile journalists, including editors Ihsane El Kadi and Mustapha Benjama remain in jails on charges pertaining to use of foreign funds to disrupting public order.
The government, however, has also resumed granting authority to the journalists who want to start new media outlets or television shows.
