Journalist Ihsane El Kadi, a Leading Voice in the 2019 Pro-Democracy Protests, is Pardoned by Algeria

Ihsane El Kadi was jailed for receiving money from outside Algeria, but he was released on the 70th anniversary of the country’s revolution.

Algeria has released a journalist who was jailed for threatening state security and taking foreign money for his media sites during the country’s 2019 pro-democracy protests. The journalist was later released on bail.

One of Ihsane El Kadi’s lawyers, Fetta Seddat, told reporters that he was freed from prison Thursday evening. He was part of a larger group of people who were pardoned and freed on the 70th anniversary of the start of Algeria’s revolution, which is a national holiday that the government has used in the past to free prisoners.

As the editing head of the media company that ran Radio M and the news site Maghreb Emergent for many years, El Kadi was an experienced professional. Both news outlets wrote a lot about Algeria’s weekly pro-democracy “Hirak” protests, which started in 2019 and forced President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to step down.

As the “voice of the Hirak,” both became places where pro-Hirak opinions could be heard and where protesters’ goals could be discussed.

As one of the few independent voices in Algerian media, El Kadi was one of the journalists that the government went after during the protests that continued under President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who took over from Bouteflika. He wrote about everything from business to the Algerian Civil War, which ran through the 1990s and strengthened the military’s control over this gas-rich North African country.

In 2022, El Kadi was arrested and charged with threatening state security and breaking laws that say media groups can’t get money from outside the country. His daughter sent money from the UK, according to investigation. Maghreb Emergent and Radio M were both shut down.

El Kadi was freed from El Harrah jail on Thursday and was met by his wife and daughter. Supporters of democracy and press freedom were happy about the pardon.

A comment from Khaled Drareni, who is the North Africa representative for Reporters Without Borders, said that El Kadi “should never have been jailed.”

He also said, “It is hoped that this release will also mean the end of restrictions on press freedom.”

According to Reporters Without Borders’ 2024 World Press Freedom Index, Algeria is placed 139th out of 180 countries. The organization said that the media environment has “deteriorated” because journalists are still being jailed, threatened, and charged.

El Kadi was one of 4,000 people who were freed on Thursday because Tebboune signed pardon orders, according to a statement from his office. Some of those freed were jailed for minor crimes and for “undermining public order,” a charge that Algerian authorities have used in the past to target political opponents.

Mohammed Tadjadit was a pro-democracy fighter who wrote strongly in Algerian Arabic and was known as the “poet of the Hirak.” Tebboune also released him from jail. He was arrested in January after posting negative things about the government on social media. He had already been jailed and then released several times in the past for similar complaints.

Not long before Tebboune was re-elected for a second term in September, Amnesty International spoke out against Algeria’s restrictions on free speech, saying they “contributed to a climate of fear and censorship in the country.”

In a statement released on September 2, the human rights group said, “Authorities have continued to crack down on journalists by arresting and prosecuting them without a reason, limiting their right to freedom of movement without a reason, and imposing unjust sanctions on media outlets.”

The world condemned his arrest and seven-year prison term, which became a symbol of Algeria’s crackdown on free speech and views that are critical of the government.