The National Council for Human Rights: “There Is No Absolute Freedom Of Speech”

The National Council for Human Rights called, in its first statement, to respect the requirements of professionalism and to adhere to responsibility in exercising freedom of the press and expression.

The statement that culminated in the meeting of the council’s office to define the work program for the next six-year term stated that in the world of journalism “there is no absolute freedom of speech and press”, as international treaties, especially the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights puts in Article 19 thereof, a set of restrictions on those two freedoms, which are “not to harm the public order, national security, the reputation of others, public health and public morals”, indicating that “ these restrictions must be imposed by law, and be consistent with the goal that they seek to achieve in the conditions of a democratic society”.

In the same context, the Council affirmed that freedom of the press and expression is “one of the most important pillars of the rule of law, without which it is not possible to establish transparency and accountability”, noting that the basic texts of the Algerian state, on top of which are the constitution, enshrine freedom of expression and the press.

The National Council for Human Rights also considered that “the original popular movement was in itself a form of practising freedom of expression collectively, and freedom of expression is one of the most important means that put an end to the farce of Bouteflika’s fifth bid”, highlighting that it is at the same time “one of the most important tools for building a new Algeria that remains devoid of any meaning in the absence of the freedom of journalists to professionally express their opinions.”