Tunisia: On eve of information summit, UN rights expert calls for prisoner release

Citing reported violations of freedom of opinion and expression in Tunisia as the North African country prepares to host the World Summit on the Information Society next month, a United Nations human rights expert has called on the Government to release unconditionally all press- and opinion-related prisoners. “I have also been alarmed by the polarization of opinions and the lack of dialogue with the Press, two elements which could seriously jeopardize the progress of media freedom in the country,” the Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression of the UN Commission on Human Rights, Ambeyi Ligabo, said in a statement, calling on the Government to allow the full exercise of those rights.