Mohammed Boualem Benchicou ( ar, محمد بنشيكو) (born 1952 in

Miliana Miliana ( ar, مليانة) is a commune in Aïn Defla Province in northwestern Algeria. It is the administrative center of the daïra, or district, of the same name. It is approximately southwest of the Algerian capital, Algiers.r/sup>, which ...

Aïn Defla Province Aïn Defla ( ar, ولاية عين الدفلى, is a wilaya (''province'') in northern Algeria. It is located to the southwest of Algiers, the capital. Localities in Ain Delfa include Khemis Miliana, Miliana, Hammam Righa, Oued Zebboudj and A ...

) was the director and publisher of the

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

n newspaper '' Le Matin ( en, the sunrise)'', closed in August 2006.

Career

In 1989, he was one of the founders of the movement of Algerian journalists (MJA) a movement born during the opening of the media field. He then leads the team which relaunched ''Alger Républicain'', banned from publication in 1965. Benchicou left ''Alger Républicain'' in 1991 with

Saïd Mekbel Said Mekbel (March 25, 1940 at Bejaia – December 3, 1994 at Algiers) was an Algerian journalist and satirist. Personal Born on March 25, 1940, at Bejaia in a modest family. His father was a seaman. He was the eldest of four children. A ...

and

Fodil Mezali Fodil Mezali ( ar, فضيل مزالي) (born in Thénia on 23 April 1959) is an Algerian journalist, editor-in-chief and managing editor. Early life Mezali was born in 1959 in the town of Thénia in the lower Kabylia region of Algeria, east ...

and founded the daily newspaper ''Le Matin'' of opposition. In June 2004, he was sentenced to two years in prison for an infraction in money exchange regulation. In July, SIMPRAL, the Algiers-based government publisher, stopped printing ''Le Matin'' for its failure to pay a debt of 38 million dinars ($535,200) PEN (the international association of writers) describes the prison in which Benchicou was in as harsh and infested with lice and cockroaches; with 50 prisoners to a cell. Benchicou's health has reportedly deteriorated since his imprisonment which caused him to develop arthritis; consequently, he lost the ability to use his right hand for writing. Benchicou also published a book in 2004 called ''Bouteflika, an Algerian “fraud”'', believed to be the source of all his juridic problems.

Personal life

Mohamed Benchicou is the eldest of a family of seven children. He is married and father of three children, two girls and a boy.

Awards and honors

* 2006

PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award Awards presented by the PEN American Center (today PEN America) that are no longer active. The awards are among many PEN awards sponsored by International PEN in over 145 PEN centres around the world. The PEN American Center awards have been ch ...

Bibliography

* ''Bouteflika, une imposture algérienne'' (Bouteflika an Algerian "Fake"), Le Matin Editions - Picollec, 2004 * ''Les geôles d’Alger'' (Prisons of Algiers), Inas - Riveneuve, 2007 * ''Je pardonnerai'', (I'll Forgive, Poems), Inas, 2008 * ''Journal d'un homme libre'', (A Freeman's Diaries) Auteur-Riveneuve, 2008 * ''Notre ami Bouteflika, de l'état rêvé à l'état scélérat'' (Our Friend Bouteflika), Riveneuve, 2010 * ''Le mensonge de Dieu'' (God's Lie), Michalon, 2011 * ''Le dernier soir du dictateur'' (Last Night of a Dictator), Riveneuve, 2011

External links

Personal website

Online Newspaper

References

1952 births Living people People from Miliana Algerian journalists Politics of Algeria Algerian prisoners and detainees 21st-century Algerian people {{Africa-journalist-stub