Today marks the 20th anniversary of the murder of Algerian journalist Saïd Mekbel. He was shot while eating near his office in Algiers on 3 December 1994.
That morning, his newspaper, Le Matin, had carried what proved to be his own eulogy, a poetic polemic about the plight of journalists caught up in conflict.
And, as Karima Bennoune writes in Open Democracy, the piece known as “Ce voleur qui” (This thief who) remains sadly topical today because of the number of journalists killed in recent times, including those murdered by Islamic State (Isis) this year.
She refers specifically to Iraqi journalists Raad Mohamed al-Azzawi and Mohanad al-Akidi, and to the Americans Steven Sotloff and James Foley.
Bennoune reminds us that during the 1990s, Algerian journalists were murdered by the country’s armed fundamentalist groups while simultaneously facing restrictions and harassment by the military-backed government.
She quotes the Algerian writer, Tahar Djaout - who was killed by the Armed Islamic Group in 1993 - for expressing the reporters’ predicament: “If you speak out, they will kill you. If you keep silent, they will kill you. So speak out, and die.”
Sixty journalists were killed by the fundamentalist armed groups between 1993 and 1997 in Algeria. After Mekbel was killed, Le Matin reprinted his articles over many days “to spite the killers.”
Read her full article along with Mekbel’s final poignant and prescient words here on Open Democracy
