TV presenter murdered

Reporters Without Borders said today it was shocked at the murder on 26 July of Algerian TV presenter Mourad Belkacem and called on the authorities to investigate at once the circumstances and motives for the killing. A relative found the body of the journalist, gagged and bound, in a cupboard at his apartment in Algiers. He appeared to have been hit over the head, his belongings searched and items and documents stolen. Police said the killer had not broken into the apartment. Belkacem was a veteran French-language radio presenter who worked for Canal Algérie, which is beamed abroad, and was not politically active. Reporters Without Borders notes that 57 journalists and about 40 media assistants were murdered in Algeria between 1993 and 1996.