القيود والمضايقات على حرية الصحافة في ظل التعددية الحزبية في الجزائر

This study investigates the impact of the 1989 political changes -political pluralism on the freedom of the press in Algeria. Does political pluralism lead to freedom of the press? Does media diversity generate freedom of the press? Does the 1990 code of information (press law) guarantee freedom of the press? Findings of the study suggests that the Algerian press benifitted to a large extent from the new political era during the period 1989-1992. Dailies and periodicals mushroomed due to the new press law which allowed private ownership of newspapers and periodicals. New discourse was adopted by the majority of the news organizations emphasizing criticism and investigative reporting. Unfortunately this healthy state of the media didn’t last for a long time and was interrupted by official censorship and legal measures of control and manipulation. From 1992 to the present the press in Algeria has been suffering from the state of Emergency act of February 9th, 1992, and the ministerial decree of June 7th, 1994 on “ l’ information securitaire”. These two measures of control and censorship took back the Algerian press to the era of the one party system and state control of the media. Still, one can argue that political pluralism has had some positive impact on the press system in Algeria in terms of quantity, quality and diversity.