Algerian Digital Journalism Under President Tebboune: Entering Its Golden Era and Heralding a Promising Media Future By: Maamar Gani

Algerian Digital Journalism Under President Tebboune: Entering Its Golden Era and Heralding a Promising Media Future

By: Maamar Gani

After years of existential struggle under the former regime—despite the explosive rise of social media platforms and the sweeping digital revolution in audiovisual media—President Abdelmadjid Tebboune championed Algeria’s electronic press. Very quickly, a logical and organic relationship emerged between Algeria’s digital media—one of the defining tools of the new media age—and the massive growth of social networking platforms. This synergy gave rise to the creation of news pages on these platforms, designed to reach the broadest possible audience, while offering an unprecedented level of interaction: from simply browsing and selecting content, to directly and instantly engaging with journalists through live questions.

President Tebboune’s Victory for the Digital Press: A Meeting of Destiny Between Vision and a Digitally Ambitious Youth

Even before ascending to the presidency, Abdelmadjid Tebboune had grasped the immense media potential unleashed by the digital explosion, and the opportunities it offered to elevate Algeria’s communication landscape. He pledged to integrate this vision into his presidential platform during his electoral campaign, directly addressing young media professionals and promising them a place in the future of national communication.

Upon taking office, President Tebboune placed digital journalism at the heart of sweeping reforms to the media sector. These reforms began with the overhaul of outdated legal frameworks, stripping away the remnants of a discredited past to modernize and align them with global standards. The result was a landmark Organic Law on Information, a major addition to Algeria’s national communication strategy. Its principal aim: to strengthen journalists’ rights, expand the horizons of the press in an age of digitization, and confront the systematic and dangerous foreign-led disinformation campaigns targeting Algeria—campaigns to which Algeria’s digital journalists have responded with particular determination.

A New Status for the Digital Press: Deep Structural Reforms to Reorder Algeria’s Media Landscape

The “New Algeria” succeeded in bridging the massive media gap left by the previous leadership’s neglect of the digital revolution’s impact on communication, journalism, and especially youth engagement. This shift was formally enshrined in the 2020 constitutional amendment, which reaffirmed the promotion of press freedom while ensuring it remains within a legal framework, offering genuine guarantees for its exercise.

A key milestone was the Executive Decree 20-232, which filled the long-standing legal vacuum surrounding online press freedom, establishing a solid legal foundation for electronic journalism. Guided by the principles of the 2020 Constitution, the government then drafted an Organic Law on Information designed to meet citizens’ expectations and the profession’s need for regulation—balancing the imperatives of public service and the public interest, reflecting the authorities’ determination to keep pace with technological change, and ensuring alignment with international norms. This framework strengthens the freedoms of print, broadcast, and electronic journalism, fostering a press rooted in national reality, aware of the stakes, and committed to professional ethics.

Including the Digital Press as a New Mechanism for Public Tender Announcements: A Landmark Presidential Decision

President Tebboune’s decision, during the Council of Ministers meeting on May 28, 2023, to integrate accredited electronic media into the system for publishing public tender notices was a milestone in “enhancing transparency standards, combating corruption, bribery, and manipulations in contract allocations, and ensuring sound governance in the management of public funds,” as confirmed by the National Union of Algerian Journalists and Media Professionals.

This decision offered a vital financial lifeline to Algeria’s digital press, enabling it to better meet its logistical and operational needs while improving working conditions for its staff. The move is expected to positively impact the quality of its content, strengthen its ability to present the true image of Algeria, and resist the relentless media offensives against the country. It also reflects the President’s political will to address the concerns of media professionals, particularly those working in electronic journalism.

In practice, this measure has played a decisive role in safeguarding Algeria’s digital press by granting it access to public-sector advertising revenues linked to public tenders. It acts as a robust guarantee for transparent legal funding mechanisms while protecting national interests. Complementing this is President Tebboune’s initiative to regulate and activate a Press Support Fund, providing an additional boost to the tireless efforts of the national press in countering disinformation and the kind of cyberwarfare that has devastated nations in recent years.

In this context, media professional Riad Houili noted that with the enforcement of the executive decree granting electronic press outlets access to public tender advertising—effective August 12, 2025—the President has personally ensured the continuous follow-up of the digital press dossier, removing legal and administrative obstacles until the May 28, 2023 law came into full effect.

Houili described this measure as a giant leap in the digital transformation of Algeria’s media, injecting transparency into public procurement by enabling investors and contractors to access competition notices, tenders, bids, and related announcements. Moreover, it creates a professional environment conducive to the growth of a robust and credible digital press, putting an end to practices that had nearly derailed Algeria’s online journalism experiment. It also places the media community before its professional responsibilities—chief among them, contributing to the construction of strong media institutions and completing the development of a fully integrated national media map serving both society and the state.

Dzair Tube at the Forefront: A Young Digital Newsroom Defending the Nation and Serving the Public

The Dzair Tube media group has been at the forefront of these transformations as one of Algeria’s leading non-traditional media institutions. Through its pioneering digital channel and multi-language news website, its management has committed to delivering diverse news coverage and in-depth analysis—not only in Arabic and French but also in English, in line with the President’s vision of promoting English as the global language of science and modern technology.

In the midst of an intense media war waged by hostile platforms against Algeria, Dzair Tube has played a critical role. Its young, ambitious team of 40 professionals has built a strong foundation for a promising Algerian digital press, acting as a media shield to defend the nation and its institutions against malicious propaganda and infiltration attempts by foreign powers seeking to undermine the “Land of Martyrs” and impose destructive agendas.

Dzair Tube has emerged as Algeria’s foremost digital media platform, earning prestigious recognitions such as the President of the Republic’s Award for Professional Journalists, the Media Leadership Award, and the Hilal Television Award, in acknowledgment of its outstanding contributions to enriching Algeria’s media scene.

This remarkable achievement has been fueled by the loyalty of its audience. The Dzair Tube website—published in Arabic, English, and French—attracts over 100,000 daily visitors, while its main Facebook page boasts 5.7 million followers and its YouTube channel half a million subscribers. Its influence is further amplified by dozens of supportive million-follower pages on Twitter, TikTok, Telegram, WhatsApp, YouTube, and Facebook, along with regular coverage by popular websites on Google and other major global platforms that share Dzair Tube’s content daily.