RSF presses Algeria to free reporter Christophe Gleizes after 500 days

Christophe Gleizes is closing in on 500 days of detention in Algeria, and his release still looks distant. Reporters Without Borders is now publicly pressing for him to walk free, with FRANCE 24's Mark Owen interviewing the group's director general, Thibault Bruttin, about the case.

The campaign to free the French sports journalist has stretched well beyond newsrooms. Those close to him and fellow sports journalists have pushed relentlessly for his release, and the affair has drawn the attention of Zinedine Zidane, manager of the French national football team.

Bruttin suggested Gleizes may have been reduced to a bargaining chip. He said the reporter has likely become "a token in a diplomatic game that we don't totally understand, that we don't totally master," adding that the question now being asked is whether Gleizes has become "a state hostage."

That framing puts the detention squarely in political territory rather than the sports beat Gleizes once covered. Nearly 500 days in, the campaign behind him keeps running, but the reporter remains in Algerian custody.