What is El Watan?
El Watan is a French-language daily newspaper published in Algeria. Its website, elwatan.dz, to which the former address elwatan-dz.com redirects, is titled “El Watan - L'actualité en Algérie, Premier quotidien francophone - El Watan”.[1]
Its own page states: “Le quotidien El Watan a été lancé le 8 octobre 1990, dans le sillage des réformes politiques, par vingt journalistes regroupés dans la SPA El Watan.” It describes itself as “Premier journal indépendant du matin, d'expression française, à être édité en Algérie”, and states that its editorial line rests on “un traitement objectif de l'information, en développant des analyses pertinentes, une vérification rigoureuse des informations publiées”. Those are the paper's descriptions of itself.[2]
The same page states that the paper developed regional editions for the east, the west and Kabylie, and supplements on the economy, television and property, as well as weekend editions.[2] No current statement of its shareholders was retrieved.
What does El Watan cover?
El Watan publishes sport under the path elwatan.dz/sport. As retrieved on 27 September 2026, the ten most recent items there, dated 23 to 25 September 2026, were all on football.[3]
They included a match report headlined “Éliminatoires CAN 2027. Algérie 3 Zambie 1 : Succès probant”, dated 25 September 2026, and a preview, “CAN-2027. Algérie-Zambie, demain (20h) Premier test des Verts version Hemdani”, dated 24 September. The same list carried a club item, “ES Sétif : Karaoui remplace Mellouli”, a column on Algerian players abroad, “Les Verts de l'étranger : Amoura en pleine lumière”, and an item on the under-20 team, “Tournoi qualificatif à la CAN-2027 U20 : Les Verts débuteront face à la Tunisie demain”.[3]
It also carried an item on a match in the same qualifying competition between two other countries, dated 25 September 2026.[3] The home page carried the Zambia match report among its general news on the same days.[1]
How large is El Watan's audience?
No audited circulation or readership figure for El Watan was retrieved, and no national readership survey was found. That is a limitation of the evidence.
The most recent figure retrieved is a press report. Middle East Eye reported on 13 July 2022: “Depuis le mois de février, la direction d'El Watan, dont le journal n'est plus tiré désormais qu'à 50 000 exemplaires contre 200 000 il y a une dizaine d'années, se dit dans l'incapacité de verser les salaires de ses 150 employés.” That is, the paper was then printed in 50,000 copies against 200,000 about ten years earlier, and the management said it could not pay its 150 employees.[4] A print run is not a sale or a readership, and the figure is four years old.
Since when has El Watan existed?
The paper dates its launch to 8 October 1990 and states that it was launched by twenty journalists grouped in the SPA El Watan. That is the paper's own account; no second source for the date was retrieved.[2]
2022. Middle East Eye reported on 13 July 2022 that the management, which it said had for several years described itself as “à court d'argent”, attributed this to the drying-up of private advertising and to the suspension, described as “unilatérale”, of an agreement with the Agence nationale d'édition et de publicité (ANEP), described in the report as the public body holding the monopoly of state advertising. It reported that the management had had to take a bank loan to pay salaries and that on 12 July 2022 staff decided to hold a two-day strike.[4] The paper was publishing on 26 September 2026, when its home page carried items of that date.[1]
Why does El Watan matter in Algeria's sport?
El Watan is a national daily with a sports section that, in September 2026, reported the national team's qualifying campaign for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations and the domestic clubs.[3]
The monitor. Reporters Without Borders, which ranks Algeria 145th of 180 in its 2026 index, states on its Algeria page: “The outlets regarded as the most serious and credible are the daily newspaper El Watan and the TSA and Interlignes websites.” It also states: “The private sector has been hit hard since 2019, with many media outlets, including TV channels, forced to shut down, above all because advertising has dried up.”[5] Those are the monitor's words.
The media law. Loi organique n° 23-14 of 27 August 2023 relative à l'information, published in the Journal Officiel n° 56 of 29 August 2023, provides in article 4 that information activities are carried on by media belonging to “des institutions publiques et les entreprises et organismes du secteur public”, to political parties, associations and trade-union organisations within the limits set by the laws governing them, and to Algerian natural persons or legal persons whose capital or shareholders are, in the article's word, “exclusivement” Algerian. Article 12 provides that any outlet receiving funding or material aid “doit être lié organiquement à l'organisme donateur”, and its second paragraph reads: “Le financement et/ou l'aide matérielle directe et indirecte de toute partie étrangère sont interdits, sous peine des sanctions pénales prévues par la loi.”[6]
References
- El Watan — elwatan.dz home page (title; items dated 25–26 September 2026). Accessed 2026-09-27.
- El Watan — Qui sommes-nous (launch 8 October 1990; SPA El Watan; editions). Accessed 2026-09-27.
- El Watan — Sport section (items dated 23–25 September 2026, as retrieved 27 September 2026). Accessed 2026-09-27.
- Middle East Eye (édition française) — Algérie : confronté à une grave crise financière, le quotidien francophone El Watan agonise (Ali Boukhlef, 13 July 2022). Accessed 2026-09-27.
- Reporters Without Borders — World Press Freedom Index, Algeria (2026 and 2025 rank and score; media landscape; economic context; legal framework). Accessed 2026-09-27.
- Journal Officiel de la République algérienne, French edition, n° 56, 29 August 2023 — Loi organique n° 23-14 du 27 août 2023 relative à l’information (PDF): articles 4 and 12. Accessed 2026-09-27.