In Mohammadia, 350 km west of Algiers, the newspaper Ennahar's correspondent, Djamel Ali Toubal, was given a summary trial on 17 June because of his sympathetic coverage of the "Hirak" anti-government street protests on Facebook and was sentenced to two years in prison for "insulting state authority" and "Facebook posts liable to endanger national interest."
Merzoug Touati, a blogger and reporter for L'Avant-Garde Algérie, a news site that is blocked in Algeria, was arrested while covering a protest in support of prisoners of conscience on 12 June in Bejaia, 245 km east of Algiers.
Mustapha Bendjama, the editor of the regional French-language newspaper Le Provincial, appeared in court in Annaba, 600 km east of Algiers, on 17 June to face a possible three-year jail term on charges of "inciting an unarmed gathering," "opposing the holding of an election" and "using a gathering to oppose actions approved by state authorities."
Khaled Drareni, the editor of the Casbah Tribune news site and Algeria correspondent of both TV5 Monde and RSF, was questioned about the "substance" of the case against him by an investigating judge on 18 June in a "hearing" held inside Kolea prison in west Algiers, where he has been held since 29 March.
Arrested while covering a peaceful Hirak protest in Algiers, Drareni is facing up to ten years in prison on a charge of "inciting an unarmed gathering" and "endangering national unity."
