Paris (AFP)

Gilles Bouleau, Anne-Claire Coudray, Laurent Delahousse ... A dozen French star journalists gathered on Monday in front of the Algerian embassy in Paris to demand the release of their Algerian colleague, Khaled Drareni, sentenced to three years in prison in his country, AFP noted.

Whether they officiate on TF1, like Harry Roselmack, M6, like Bernard de la Villardière, or France Télévisions like Daphné Bürki, all responded to the call of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), whose activists brandished portraits and placards proclaiming " #Free Khaled "and" #We are Khaled ", on the eve of the appeal trial of this correspondent for the international French-speaking channel TV5 Monde and RSF.

"The Algerian authorities wanted to set an example to intimidate all journalists in Algeria", declared the secretary general of the NGO, Christophe Deloire.

"And he made a symbol, a symbol of defense of press freedom," he added.

Also director of the Casbah Tribune news site, Khaled Drareni, 40, was sentenced on August 10 to three years in prison and a fine of 50,000 dinars (330 euros) for "inciting unarmed assembly" and "undermining national unity ".

He was imprisoned at the end of March after covering in Algiers a demonstration of the "Hirak", the popular uprising that rocked Algeria for more than a year until his suspension due to the new coronavirus pandemic.

"We are in solidarity with him, with all the Algerian journalists who fight every day to preserve this little flame of freedom of expression in a country which does not like it too much", underlined Bernard de la Villardière.

"He has lost 15 kilos, he is unrecognizable", worried his colleague from TV5 Monde, Mohamed Kaci, defending a "very patriotic" and "very professional" colleague.

An international campaign of support and demonstrations in favor of his release were recently organized in Algiers, New York and Geneva.

In recent months, journalists have been accused by the Algerian regime of sowing discord, threatening the national interest and especially of being in the pay of "foreign parties".

Several are in prison.

For Christophe Deloire, "the situation has very clearly deteriorated" since President Abdelmadjid Tebboune came to power in December, and thanks to the health context.

Algeria is in 146th place (out of 180) in the 2020 world press freedom ranking established by RSF, falling 27 places compared to 2015.

© 2020 AFP