Algiers - An appeal court upheld two-month jail terms on two journalists including one of Algeria's most prominent editors for defamation and insulting comment, the independent daily, El Watan, reported on Wednesday.
The French language newspaper said the court in the eastern town of Jijel on Tuesday confirmed an earlier verdict by a lower court against editor Omar Belhouchet, one of the north African country's leading journalists, and columnist Chawki Amari.
El Watan lawyer Zoubeir Soudani said the newspaper would appeal to the Supreme Court against the ruling, which refers to a 2006 article about a provincial governor. The court also upheld a one million dinar ($15 000) fine against the daily.
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The two journalists remain at liberty pending the result of the appeal to the Supreme Court.
"This decision is not only unjustifiable but excessive," the newspaper quoted Soudani as saying.
The daily published a statement by the International Federation of Journalists in which the press watchdog expressed "utmost concern at the heavy sentence."
Algerian journalists enjoy more press freedom than in many other Arabic-speaking countries - about 50 titles have sprung up since the sector was liberalised in the early 1990s.
But independent newspapers tend to have strained ties with the government, and international human rights groups have criticised Algeria for using legal action as a means to silence journalists who annoy its leaders.
Several Algerian reporters have received prison sentences in recent years for defamation but none have actually been sent to prison and they remain at liberty and free to work.
As a result, although their sentences are not suspended, the effect of the move is similar to a suspended sentence, with the threat of jail time hanging over the journalists concerned, journalists say.
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in May 2006 announced a pardon for journalists sentenced to prison for defamation in the first such step since he took office in 1999. Journalists say more than 10 colleagues benefited from the move.
Bouteflika's move did not cover outspoken anti-government editor Mohamed Benchicou, who served two years in jail from 2004 to 2006 for currency exchange violations.
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