Algerians Firmly Respond To Provocations and “Lapses” Of A French TV Channel

The documentary film entitled “Algérie mon amour” (Algeria My Love), devoted to the popular movement or “Hirak”, broadcast on France 5 TV Channel on Tuesday evening, May 26, has aroused a large wave of bitter indignation among numerous disgruntled Algerian Internet users.

“This untoward documentary does not reflect the dimension and the background of the motivations of the popular protest movement of February 22nd in Algeria”, they argued.

The scathing criticism of Internet users, although justified, reproached the director for focusing only on superficial aspects and non-events that do not represent Algerian youth or the aspirations of “hirakists”.

Moreover, no hirak activist, among the most well-known and committed figures, was invited to participate, if only as an eyewitness to the weekly demonstrations.

“Hirak” has never addressed the social debate during its existence. However, the socio-cultural dimension put forward “in a grotesque way” in this controversial documentary suggests a gap, “clumsy or wilful” with the reality of the motivations and objectives of the popular revolution.

The approach of the popular movement or Hirak was, however, very clear; it remained focused exclusively on the demand for a radical change of regime.

But many of the Algerian viewers who saw the entire documentary voiced a number of objections.

Algerian Internet users talk about a documentary that has twisted Hirak’s neck by attributing to it an image that is not its own. Hirakists’ claims have been grossly distorted according to the same disgruntled opinions.

Social networks are experiencing a rise in controversy and indignation on this subject.
“Our young Algerians are much brighter, nobler and more committed than your conspiratorial little schemes served up with a dash of alcohol and a hint of sex, they stressed.

The clichés of the French media about Algeria are definitely hard-skinned,” an Algerian journalist said to the authors of the documentary “falsely entitled Algeria, my love”.

In his reaction, Mr. Lakhdar Benkhalef, a member of the Justice and Development Front, said in a statement to “Echorouk” that this French TV channel is known for its ideological inclinations and we cannot expect it to do justice to any Algerian issue, whether related to the hirak movement or others, and considered that this warped behavior wants to distort the real Hirak movement waged by the Algerians that dazzled the world with their peacefulness and their the civilized maturity.

He further
emphasized that the “models” that were wittingly “recruited” in the making of this much controversial documentary are abnormal and unrealistic, as he put it.