Ammar Belhimer

The resumption of the Hirak demonstrations in the spring of 2021 led to the following reaction from Belhimer on 13 April 2021: "It is no secret that some external parties are instrumentalizing this pseudo Hirak, called the new Hirak, in their war against Algeria". He also said that these parties "resort to unhealthy means, including attempting to deceive public opinion and falsify the facts, but these methods have been laid bare". Belhimer did not state what he meant more precisely.

In office since January 2020 in the communication chair, on 11 November 2021 Ammar Belhimer gave way to Mohamed Bouslimani.

On 2 January 2020, Belhimer was appointed Minister of Communication and spokesperson in the Djerad government. His appointment provoked a feeling of incomprehension and questioning on the part of Saïd Kaced, one of his former journalist colleagues.

In August 2020, Belhimer's ministry reacted to the conviction of journalist Khaled Drareni for "undermining national unity" and "inciting an unarmed gathering" after his coverage of Hirak Movement protests, stating that Drareni did not apply for an Algerian press pass or for accreditation to be a correspondent for foreign media, all of which, according to the ministry, would never be tolerated by the countries of the media concerned.

In September 2020, he told the Arabic-language newspaper El-Lika, concerning Drareni's three-year prison sentence, that "There are no prisoners of conscience in Algeria".

On 19 February, he reiterated his praise of the Hirak Movement. He announced as future measures a stricter framework for Algerian television and news websites, and concerning the freedom of the press, pled for "a system of responsibility that frames the exercise of this freedom" by focusing on respect for the "right to the image of others, the honor and privacy of people". He indicated that he did not envisage any financial measure to support the written press, in serious crisis: "the press support fund is no longer funded since 2015".

In 2003, he became a columnist for Le Soir d'Algérie. He is a lecturer at the Faculty of Law of Algiers, and director of the Algerian Journal of Legal, Economic and Political Sciences.

After the Hamrouche law of 1990 authorized the creation of a private press, he successively founded several newspapers:

After a degree in public law at the University of Algiers in 1978, Ammar Belhimer continued his studies at the Paris Descartes University, where after a DEA obtained in 1984 he became a Doctor of Law in December 1997, with a thesis entitled "Political and legal analysis of Algerian external debt management strategies from 1986 to the present day".

From 1975 to 1990, Belhimer was a journalist with the State daily El Moudjahid and one of the activists of the Movement of Algerian Journalists (1988-1990). In 1980, he was banned from activity for six months by the second Abdelghani government for having written an article reporting the sentencing of an army captain to a prison term for corruption.

Ammar Belhimer (in Arabic: عمار بلحيمر) (born 4 May 1955 in El Aouana, Jijel Province) is an Algerian public law teacher and journalist, who became Minister of Communication and spokesperson for the first Djerad government on 4 January 2020. then from the first Benabderrahmane government from January 4, 2020 to November 11, 2021.