Algeria - December 2022

On 24 December, Algerian authorities arrested Ihsane El-Kadi, a prominent journalist and director of Radio M and the Maghreb Emergent website, seen as Algeria’s last outlets for independent news. El-Kadi is known to be an outspoken critic of the military regime and one of Algeria’s most influential voices. He was detained in response to a tweet posted on 23 December in which he disputed the truthfulness of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s recent announcement that Algeria had recovered $20 billion dollars in an embezzlement case. The imprisonment has been widely condemned by international human rights and media organizations. This is the latest measure in the sustained crackdown on opposition by Algerian authorities since the Hirak protest movement in 2019-21, and the “culmination of a long persecution and endless judicial harassment" according to Reporters Without Borders.

Sources: Courrier International, Afrique 2050, Twitter: Ihsane El-Kadi, Reporters Without Borders, Atalayar, Al Quds