The sentencing of French sports journalist Christophe Gleizes to seven years in prison on 29 June by the first instance tribunal of Tizi Ouzou marks yet another alarming escalation in the systematic persecution of independent journalists in Algeria.
According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Gleizes was visiting Algeria in May 2024 to report on a local football club in Tizi Ouzou, in the Kabyle region. He was arrested there and placed under a travel ban, a tactic routinely used to entrap Algerian activists, human rights defenders, and journalists in a web of repression.
Gleizes was then tried and convicted on charges of ‘possessing publications for propaganda purposes harmful to national interests’ and ‘glorification of terrorism,’ under articles 96 and 87 bis of the Penal Code. This is consistent with the authorities’ pattern of invoking vague and overly broad accusations to silence freedom of expression. The charges reportedly stemmed from contacts in 2015 and 2017 with the head of the football club in Tizi Ouzou, who was also a figure in the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylia (MAK), which Algerian authorities classified as a terrorist organization in 2021. The sentencing of Gleizes comes amid a diplomatic rift between Algeria and France, following the arrest in France of an Algerian consular agent accused of kidnapping a prominent activist known as Amir D.Z.
‘After imprisoning Algerian journalists and even targeting dissidents in the diaspora, authorities have now put foreign journalists in their crosshairs as well. In the ‘new Algeria’ promised by President Tebboune, even the most harmless activities and journalistic work such as reporting on a sports club can land you in jail,’ said Ziad Abdeltawab, Executive Director at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS).
Gleizes’ prison sentence is the latest manifestation of the Algerian state’s relentless efforts to intimidate, criminalize, and imprison journalists whose work diverges from the official narrative, as authorities cracked down on the popular Hirak movement that emerged in 2019 to call for a democratic change in Algeria. Over the years, authorities have systematically dismantled press freedoms and cracked down on freedom of expression by jailing reporters, media workers, and activists for peacefully exercising their right to inform the public. According to exiled activist Zakaria Hannache, there are currently 243 prisoners of conscience in Algeria.
At the beginning of 2023, Radio M and Maghreb Émergent, two of the country’s last remaining independent media outlets, were forcibly shut down. Journalists have been prosecuted under Article 95 bis of the Penal Code for allegedly receiving foreign funds to ‘disrupt public order and Algeria’s stability,’ and under Article 196 bis for ‘spreading false news.’
On 2 April 2023, journalist Ihsane El Kadi was sentenced by the Sidi Mhamed court in Algiers to five years in prison, later increased to seven years on appeal, on charges of receiving foreign funding for ‘political propaganda’ and funds purportedly intended to ‘harm state security.’ He was ultimately freed through a presidential pardon after spending almost two years in prison.
Other journalists remain arbitrarily imprisoned in Algeria. Among them is Abdelwakil Blamm, who was arrested on 29 December 2024 in the Chéraga suburb of Algiers. Blamm, a freelance reporter and one of the founders of the Barakat movement in 2014, which challenged former President Bouteflika’s bid for a fourth term, is being held in pretrial detention on charges of ‘spreading false information,’ ‘harming national unity,’ and ‘belonging to a terrorist organization.’ His detention is widely seen as retaliation for his critical coverage of government policies and support for pro-democracy movements.
Another journalist, Mustapha Bendjama, has been arbitrarily banned from travel for years, with the most recent travel ban imposed by the investigative judge of the Annaba tribunal on 2 January 2025 for an indefinite period of time. He has been held in prison several times for his journalistic work, and spent 14 months in jail in 2023 and 2024 in the context of the repression that followed the flight of activist Amira Bouraoui from Algeria. His judicial harassment did not stop there as he is still facing charges of ‘publishing false information’ and ‘disseminating information likely to harm public interest,’ under articles 196 bis and 96 of the Penal Code for an innocuous Facebook post.
Algeria’s climate of repression extends far beyond the press, reaching writers, artists, and ordinary citizens who dare to voice dissent. Mohamed Tadjadit, known as ‘the poet of the Hirak,’was sentenced to five years in prison on 20 January 2025; he has been in and out of prison and subjected to judicial intimidation since 2019. His latest conviction stems solely from his exercise of the right to free expression, specifically for his promotion on social media of the hashtag “#ManishRadhi” (I am not satisfied), which gained traction in late December 2024 as a symbol of widespread public frustration.
Boualem Sansal, an author known for his critical views of the Algerian government, was arrested on 16 November 2024, upon returning from Paris. He was sentenced to five years in prison on 27 March, confirmed on appeal on 1st July, after a trial on charges of ‘undermining national unity’, ‘insulting a constituted body’, ‘acts harmful to the national economy’, and ‘possessing publications threatening national security’, following comments made about the Algerian-Moroccan border during an interview with the far-right French magazine Frontières. His expedited trial, lacking in transparency, was part of a broader campaign to repress free expression against a backdrop of rising tensions between France and Algeria.
We call on Algerian authorities to release all prisoners of opinion in Algeria, including journalists, human rights defenders, and activists, and to overturn the unjust sentence of Christophe Gleizes.
Central to Algeria’s repressive strategy is the deliberate use of conspiracy narratives that depict all forms of dissent as part of a foreign-backed plot to destabilize the nation. By labeling human rights defenders, journalists, and activists as ‘agents’ of hostile states, the authorities cultivate a climate of fear and suspicion to justify sweeping crackdowns. This approach gained a formal pretext on 18 May 2021, when the Supreme Security Council under President Abdelmadjid Tebboune designated the political opposition group RACHAD and the Movement for the Self-Determination of the Kabylie region (MAK) as ‘terrorist organizations.’This blanket classification has since been systematically weaponized not only against members of those groups but also against anyone accused of having the slightest connection to them. The arrest and prosecution of Christophe Gleizes illustrate how this strategy has expanded: the case against him relied on tenuous past contacts with the head of a football club allegedly linked to MAK. In any democratic society this ‘evidence’ would be considered irrelevant or innocuous, but in Algeria it has been used to justify an accusation of ‘glorifying terrorism.’ This instrumentalization and misuse of the ‘terrorist’ label has enabled the authorities to suppress legitimate journalistic work and criminalize peaceful expression under the guise of protecting national security.
Share this Post