Noted thinkers, writers and filmmakers call on Algeria to free jailed journalist seen as independent

PARIS (AP) — Ten noted thinkers, writers and filmmakers, including Ken Loach and Nobel literature laureate Annie Ernaux, have signed an open letter calling on the president of Algeria to free a jailed journalist they said was punished for refusing to bow to the government line. In the letter to President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, published on Tuesday, the luminaries said prominent journalist Ihsane El Kadi, 64, was in prison “because he refuses to submit to the pressures of those who govern the country.” A court in Algiers sentenced the 64-year-old El Kadi on April 2 to five years in prison with two years suspended after his conviction on charges of receiving foreign funding for his two media outlets.