Journalist Khaled Drareni: "I am going to come back to this wonderful job that I have been exercising for 15 years"
Algerian journalist Khaled Drareni released from prison on February 19, 2021. REUTERS - RAMZI BOUDINA
Text by: Pierre Firtion Follow
6 min
In Algeria, dozens of prisoners of conscience have been freed since Friday, February 19.
Consequence of the pardon granted the day before by President Tebboune.
Among these released detainees, journalist Khaled Drareni, who over the months has become the symbol of the fight for press freedom in Algeria.
A correspondent for TV5 Monde and Reporters Without Borders, the journalist was arrested in March 2020 in Algiers on the sidelines of a Hirak demonstration, a protest movement that he has covered since the beginning in February 2019. Sentenced to 2 years' imprisonment prison closed in particular for "attacking national unity", Khaled Drareni will ultimately have spent 11 months in prison.
Released yesterday, he gave an interview this afternoon to RFI in which he expressed his desire to resume "this wonderful job", which he has been exercising for 15 years.
Listen to Khaled Drareni joined on the phone by Pierre Firtion.
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I am a journalist who has only practiced his profession.
I think I spent eleven months too long in prison (...) The freedom of the press must be a sacred freedom and I will fight for it to be respected in Algeria and in the world.
Khaled Drareni
Pierre Firtion
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Algeria
Abdelmadjid Tebboune