Meanwhile, both sides of the conflict continue to victimize the press. In 1996 alone, seven journalists were assassinated, while several other media employees met similar fates. The Islamists' perception of the press stems in part from official censorship of news relating to security forces' casualties or human rights abuses and the exclusion of Islamist viewpoints. Emergency law, for example, grants the state sweeping power to prosecute journalists whom it deems a threat to state security.
Independent newspapers are, in effect, forced to walk a tightrope.
Either they reprint APS stories, or ignore security matters altogether. In 1996, authorities continued to confiscate newspapers at the state printing press for articles that failed to conform to state guidelines. In July, Chawki Amari, a cartoonist for the independent daily La Tribune, was charged with defaming the Algerian flag for a cartoon satirizing the political situation in Algeria. An appeals court, on Sept. 3, upheld a three-year suspended prison sentence against him. In addition to Amari, the paper's publisher and editor in chief also received suspended prison sentences and the paper was subsequently banned for six months.