Algeria has announced plans for reforming stringent media laws in order to allow for private radio and television stations to operate for the first time since 1962. The cabinet of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika also pledged to stop jailing journalists for libel, and to free those already imprisoned on libel charges. A new commission will be created in order to regulate the press, rather than being under the control of the justice ministry, and the group would also include journalists. Newspapers could still face banning or suspension on the basis of “threatening state security”.

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Tags: Algeria, press freedom

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