Algeria: “Foreign Press Chapter Of Media Law To Be Unveiled This Week”

The committee of equal representation of members of the two chambers of parliament will meet at the end of this week at the headquarters of the National People’s Assembly to discuss the fate of Article 22 of the Organic Law on Information, which relates to the time limit for responding to requests for accreditation of the foreign press in Algeria.
According to Echorouk’s sources, the Office of the National People’s Assembly gave its initial approval to the list of deputies concerned with the membership of the equal member committee, based on the proportional representation of each political formation represented in the lower house of parliament, provided that the meeting of the equal member committee takes place at the end of the week at the headquarters of parliament, considering that the last meeting of this committee was held at the headquarters of the upper house of parliament in 2003.
Last Wednesday evening, the Office of the National People’s Assembly approved the nominal list of the Committee of Equal Members, which includes 10 deputies, while the date of the meeting is expected to be set for next Sunday evening, as the members are distributed among several political parties, including 2 from the Free Bloc, 2 from the National Liberation Front Party and 2 from the Society for Peace Movement and one deputy each from the Mustakbal Movement, as well as the National Democratic Rally and representatives with no political affiliation.
And in implementation of the provisions of Article 145 of the new Constitution, the meeting of the Committee of Equal Members is expected to be held on Wednesday, 10th May, as the maximum deadline, as this article establishes a maximum period of 15 days for holding the meeting after notifying the Prime Minister of Parliament, which refutes any hypothesis to postpone the date.
According to the information gathered by “Echorouk”, the upcoming meeting will be chaired by the deputy who is older compared to his colleagues, with the necessity of the presence of the head of the Communication and Culture Committee of the National People’s Assembly and a representative of the government. The text of Article 22 of the Organic Law on the Media, which had been the subject of controversy, was also agreed upon. And it asked for a lot of ink on the period of accreditation for the foreign press in Algeria.
The lower house of parliament had previously kept the article as it appeared in the text of the law, which is set for 30 days, at the time the “senators” rejected it and stopped discussing the draft law because they considered that this period was very short and did not amount to enabling the government to carry out the necessary investigations to discuss the identity and handwriting of the foreign journalist or authorized office.
This committee rarely meets in parliamentary life, as those familiar with the political matter considered it a translation and reflection of the lack of agreement between the two chambers of Parliament on a specific point in the discussion of a draft government law, contrary to what is promoted that the two chambers present an exact copy to discuss the content of the law.
Article 145 of the Constitution stipulates that, in the event of a dispute between the two Houses, the Prime Minister or the Head of Government, as the case may be, shall request a meeting of a committee of equal representation of members of both Houses within a maximum period of 15 days to propose a text relating to the provisions in dispute, and the committee shall conclude its deliberations within a maximum period of 15 days, and the Government shall submit this text to the two Houses for approval, and no amendment may be made to it without the approval of the Government.