The national provisional committee in charge of granting press cards has been installed Tuesday in Algiers by Minister of Communication Hamid Grine.
The committee comprises 13 members, including 11 journalists from the private and public sectors. It will be in charge of making a list of all the professional journalists with a view to grant them press cards.
In his address on this occasion, Grine has underlined the importance of the installation of the Committee, considering it a "big step."
Grine said that the Committee's mission is "strictly technical" as it consists in drawing up the list of professional journalists in accordance with the provisions of the law on information, adding that it has to achieve its mission within a year.
"This committee is a preliminary to the setting-up of the permanent commission for the granting of national press card, the regulatory authority of the written press and the higher council of ethics and deontology," he explained.
The national press card "will entitle the holders to have access to source of information and will also enable to distinguish between professional journalists and those who are not," said Grine.
For his part, the head of the Committee, Said Chebbah said that the Committee will have to draw up a list of professional journalists, who will elect their representatives in the permanent commission.