THE Algerian authorities suspended publication of the country's main French language newspaper, La Tribune, and locked its doors in a dispute over a cartoon, the editors said yesterday.
The newspaper had mocked the country's flag in a cartoon in Tuesday's issue, the authorities claimed. But La Tribune's staff said the claim was a pretext for a crackdown on Algeria's independent press.
Police arrested La Tribune's director, Mr Kheireddine Ameyar, and editor, Mr Baya Gacemi, on Wednesday at the newspaper offices and questioned them.
The cartoonist, Mr Lamari Chawki, was arrested at his home in Algiers. His colleagues said they believed he was taken to Serkaji high security prison.
"We think these measures are unjust and disproportionate. They are an excuse to silence roughly a newspaper which has always defended its independence and made the defence of free speech and of political liberties in general its main struggle," a staff member said.
In Paris, the international press watchdog Reporters sans Frontieres (Reporters without Borders) said it had written to President Liamine Zeroual to protest against the cartoonist's arrest.
The group asked Gen Zeroual to use his influence to obtain Mr Chawki's release, lift restrictions on the two executives and enable the paper to resume publication. La Tribune was also suspended last year, and many other newspapers have been temporarily closed since 1993.
More than 50 journalists have been killed in Algeria since 1993, when Islamic insurgents accused journalists of siding with the army backed government they are trying to topple.