Monday 24 February 2025 
Today, Tuesday, members of the National Bureau of the Syndicate of Information Publishers, led by Riad Houili, held a consultative dialogue meeting with directors and managers of media establishments regarding the crisis affecting these companies. .
According to a press release from the Syndicate of Information Publishers, during this meeting, which was held at the Press House in Algiers, the difficult situation facing the profession of journalist was studied on the professional, legislative and financial.
The Syndicate announced, “with regret”, that it had experienced a slowdown in the reform process promised by the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, in the information sector, noting that for more than two years, the Ministry of Communication has not been able to advance the reforms of the sector, it is rather the policy of dithering and management by promises that has remained in control of the situation.
The statement pointed out that the Syndicate of Information Publishers, as a professional partner, called on the government, and through it the Ministry of Communication, to speed up the implementation of President Tebboune’s promises to regulate the sector, by opening a serious and in-depth dialogue with the players in the sector without exclusion or discrimination.
In this regard, the union condemned the selective meetings of the Minister of Communication, Mohamed Bouslimani, under the guise of consultations, which contradicts the directives of the President of the Republic, in which he called on the ministries to open a real and serious dialogue with professional partners.
The Syndicate also pointed out that the bills on information and audiovisual referred to by the Minister of Communication have not been the subject of a broad and in-depth discussion by people in the profession, nor by the social partners, contrary to what the minister recently said.
The statement said that in addressing the known economic situation of media establishments in particular, participants found that dozens of media establishments are on the brink of bankruptcy in light of the inequitable distribution of public advertising, apart from of all recognized professional and trade standards. .
“Although the news publishers’ union has called on the relevant authorities to set transitional standards for the management of public advertising, until the Advertising Act is enacted, the union has not registered any step in this file, by the Ministry of Communication, which has made the situation more complicated, or it has reached the extent of the inability of media establishments to meet their financial obligations, with many establishments beginning to reduce the number of journalists and workers,” the statement added.
The Syndicate also pointed out that the ambiguity in the conduct of public advertising and its unfair distribution persists despite the changes that have affected the competent bodies managing or supervising the management of the file, which raises many questions.
The participants blamed the relevant authorities for the flooding of the media arena, which led to chaos in a very sensitive and extremely important sector, the same statement added.
In this regard, the National Office noted the great difference between the political discourse on the importance of the media and their role at this pivotal stage in Algeria’s journey, on the one hand, and the practices in the field of the sectorally competent authorities, on the other side.
The Syndicate of Information Publishers has also noted the great difficulties encountered by the new electronic press in Algeria, as it suffers from the absence of a clear framework to benefit from public advertising to date, despite repeated promises from public authorities, denouncing the procrastination of the competent authorities to find solutions to this file.
Consequently, the Syndicate appealed to the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, for urgent intervention to save media establishments from bankruptcy, and urged the government to proceed without delay with the organization of the sector in consultation with professional players, in order to build a strong media system on intact foundations, and according to an approach that takes into account developments in the field of information at local and international level, both legislatively and economically.
The Syndicate of Information Publishers also recorded, with regret, a decline in the level of professional performance, due to the disastrous financial situation of media establishments, as well as the absence of the training and supervision factor, not to mention the lack of bodies that control and supervise the profession.
The union has emphasized the role of training in improving professional performance, whether for journalists as a center of journalistic work or for managers and editors to transition into the professional management of media establishments. The union expresses here its desire to open training workshops in partnership with all the players in the sector.
The union also renewed its permanent readiness to defend the higher interests of the country and the immutable values of society, in the face of media campaigns targeting Algeria, calling on all publishers, journalists and players in the sector to show media vigilance, in order to ensure media security in Algeria.
Ahmed Achour