The Arab world’s rulers have turned journalists into courtiers

In much of the world the closure of independent media triggers an uproar. Not in Algeria. Only a handful of reporters attended a press conference on January 7th called by the lawyers of Ihsane el-Kadi, a journalist, after he was arrested and the radio station and website he owned were closed. Goons confiscated his journalists’ mobile phones and computers. “People are too shocked and scared by the arrest to publish it,” says Tin Hinane, his daughter, a respected Algerian analyst. “Algeria’s media have all been co-opted by the state or forced to shut down.”This was not always so. For decades Arab rulers put up with an independent press of sorts. Some saw it as a safety-valve and a way to gauge public opinion. They kept a tight grip on journalists but did not dictate coverage. “We wrote about corrupt arms deals, local support for jihadists and the suppression of women’s rights,” recalls a nostalgic Saudi journalist of the 1990s.