ALGIERS, July 4: Two top Algerian press executives have received jail sentences here in the latest of what critics say is growing state pressure to rein in freedom of speech in the strife-torn north African country.

The chief executive of an Algerian press group and the managing editor of one of its dailies each received a two-month sentence for publishing allegedly insulting articles about a local police chief, the group said.

Ahmed Benaoum, chief executive officer of the Er-Rai El Aam group, and managing editor Ahmed Oukili were also fined 10,000 dinars (114 euros, 141 dollars) each by a court Saturday in north western Oran for articles casting doubt on the management of the city's head of criminal investigation, it added.

The sentences are the latest in what government critics say is increasingly rigorous action against the media against the backdrop of a long-running, though abating, civil war.

Last month the Paris-based journalists' rights group Reporters sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders - RSF) called for reforms in Algeria to end custodial sentences as punishment for defamation.

Influential media targeted here include the Arab television service Al Jazeera, ordered last week to suspend its coverage of Algeria. Local newsmen had earlier noted that authorities had disapproved of a debate aired by Al Jazeera that implicitly questioned President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's plan for ending the war between government forces and extremist rebels.

The two press executives were charged after a complaint by the head of state security (DGSN), their media group said. Benaoum was arrested on Monday in an Oran courthouse as he was about to stand trial on separate charges of defamation, according to his group, which publishes the Arabic language Er- Rai newspaper and two French-language papers, Le Journal de l'Ouest and Detective.

The three papers have not been published since last August due to a legal battle over debts a printing company says it is owed by the group. The jail sentences coincide with protests by private newspapers in Algeria against a perceived campaign to gag the independent press through trumped-up charges.

Three weeks ago, the publisher of Le Matin daily was jailed for two years for violating the country's laws on foreign exchange. -AFP