France – Reporters Without Borders, July 15, 2025
From footballers and coaches like Rai, Vahid Halilhodzic and Hervé Renard, to actors and directors like Michel Hazanavicius, to renowned authors like Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, nearly 100 public figures have publicly called for the release of sports journalist Christophe Gleizes. A contributor to the magazines Society and So Foot, he was unjustly sentenced to seven years in prison in Algeria. In line with this public support, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the So Press media group and the family of Christophe Gleizes have launched a support committee for the wrongly imprisoned journalist.
A few days after sports journalist Christophe Gleizes was unjustly sentenced to seven years in prison — the heaviest sentence imposed on a French journalist for their work in more than a decade — his friends and family launched a petition and recently created a support committee.
In support of this initiative, hundreds of public figures have signed the petition and publicly called for the journalist’s release. Football clubs, which have been Christophe Gleizes’ passion for over ten years, have also shown their support, including OGC Nice, Paris FC, Racing Club de Lens, the French Football Federation (FFF) and the Professional Football League (LFP); They include sports journalists such as Hervé Mathoux, presenter of the programme Canal Football Club on the television channel Canal+.
