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| - Algerian authorities on Saturday threatened to withdraw for good the media accreditation of international television broadcaster France 24, alleging "blatant bias" in its coverage of the country's pro-democracy protest movement. "A final warning before the permanent withdrawal of accreditation was sent to France 24," a ministry statement said. "The bias of France 24 in the coverage of the Friday marches is blatant, going so far as to resort, without restraint, to archival images ... to help anti-national remnants consisting of reactionary or separatist organisations," the communication's ministry alleged. It was referring to the outlawed Islamist movement Rachad and Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie (MAK), a traditionally restive region in the northeast. "We are trying to do our work as honestly as possible," France 24 director Marc Saikali told AFP. "We're just doing our job within the rules which have been set out. "We don't take sides, and we certainly don't have any kind of agenda aimed at destroying anything." Anti-regime protests broke out in Algeria in February 2019 when then-president Abdelaziz Bouteflika said he would stand for a fifth term in office. The ailing strongman was forced to step down weeks later, but the movement has continued with demonstrations demanding a sweeping overhaul of a ruling system in place since Algeria's independence from France in 1962. Communications Minister and government spokesman Ammar Belhimer summoned the France 24 bureau accredited in Algiers to warn "against what appears to be subversive activity, illustrated by unprofessional practices hostile to our country", the official APS news agency reported. According to the ministry, the channel "is striving to rejuvenate at all costs these counter-revolutionary 'prefabricated upheavals' instigated by NGOs that are well-established in Paris and other European capitals" -- a reference to press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and rights group Amnesty International, among others. Foreign media working in Algeria are subject to bureaucratic, opaque and arbitrary press accreditation procedures which grant them permission to work in the country. Agence France-Presse's Algeria bureau chief, Philippe Agret, was appointed in October 2019, but authorities have failed without explanation to provide him with any accreditation. Working conditions remain difficult for Algerian journalists, who are exposed to prosecution and even imprisonment, as well as hostility from some activists. On Friday, a France 24 team was among journalists who were verbally abused by a group of protesters taking part in the weekly demonstrations, an AFP reporter witnessed. Demonstrators have charged some foreign media of siding with the regime, while Algerian journalists working for French outlets have been accused of representing a country seen as a supporter of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune. Tebboune was elected in December 2019 on low turnout in a poll boycotted by the protest movement. RSF ranked Algeria 146 out of 180 countries and territories in its 2020 World Press Freedom Index, a 27-place drop from 2015. agr/sw/lg/jkb/har
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