UPDATE: Michael Schumacher's wife called on reporters on Tuesday to stay away from the French hospital where he is being treated for life-threatening injuries from a skiing accident, and to leave her family alone.
"Please support our shared fight with Michael. It is important to me thatyou take the pressure off the doctors and the hospital so they can do their work," Corinna Schumacher said in a statement addressed "to the media".
"Please have faith in their statements and leave the hospital. Please also leave our family in peace," the wife of the Formula One legend said.
Last week, Schumacher's manager Sabine Kehm deplored the tactics used by some journalists to try and catch a glimpse of the seven-time world champion in his room, reporting that one had dressed up as a priest to try and get in.
The German Federation of Journalists on Tuesday also echoed Corinna Schumacher's plea, urging reporters to use restraint while covering the former racer's plight.
Schumacher remains in a critical condition in hospital where he has been in a medically induced coma since the accident on December 29 in the French ski resort of Meribel.
But there has been a "slight improvement" in the former Ferrari driver's condition, a source close to Schumacher said on Monday.
There are small signs of improvement and his loved-ones hope that he will pull through, the source told the German sports news agency SID, an AFP subsidiary, on condition of anonymity.
Earlier on Monday, doctors treating Schumacher at the CHU hospital in Grenoble said he remained in a stable but critical condition.
Following a flurry of media speculation about his condition, the team treating him said they would give no details of the treatment the 45-year-old is receiving in order to protect his right to privacy.
