Twenty gun-toting cops burst into the offices of La Dépêche d'Algérie, Algiers' leading French-language newspaper, ordered the 200 employees out within ten minutes. Simultaneously, out in the provinces police swooped on L'Echo d'Oran and La Dépêche de Constantine. Thus last week, only days after formalizing his one-man, one-party rule (TIME, Sept. 20), Algerian Strongman Ahmed ben Bella seized his country's last three remaining French-owned newspapers. To Ben Bella they were dangerous relics of colonialism and tantalizing propaganda tools. Said he: "It is not enough to inform the masses. They must be...
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