TUNISIA: AUTHORITIES URGED TO FREE JOURNALISTS
Press-freedom conditions in Tunisia were under the spotlight last week as the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) called on Tunisian authorities to release two journalists from prison.
TUNISIA: AUTHORITIES URGED TO FREE JOURNALISTS
Press-freedom conditions in Tunisia were under the spotlight last week
as the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Reporters Without Borders
(Reporters sans frontières, RSF) and the International Federation of
Journalists (IFJ) called on Tunisian authorities to release the
country's two remaining journalists from prison.
Zouhair Yahyaoui, editor of the Internet magazine "TUNeZINE," and Hamadi
Jebali, editor of the banned Islamist Al-Nahda party's weekly "Al-Fajr"
newspaper, have been subject to harsh treatment in prison, IFJ says.
Yahyaoui has been tortured and is ill, adds IFJ. Both men started a
hunger strike on 13 January in protest over their prison conditions. At
press time, Jebali remains on hunger strike and the state of his health
is worrying, says RSF.
Yahyaoui was arrested on 4 June 2002 in connection with articles he
posted on "TUNeZINE" criticising the Tunisian government's May 2002
referendum, CPJ says. That referendum, approved by 99 per cent of
voters, allowed the government to alter the constitution giving
President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali a fourth term in office.
Jebali has been in jail since January 1991. That year, he was sentenced
to 16 years in prison for belonging to an illegal organisation and "for
aggression with the intention of changing the nature of the state," says
CPJ. Amnesty International has adopted Jebali and Yahyaoui as "prisoners
of conscience."
RSF has named Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali one of the world's "press freedom
predators." Since coming to power in 1987, Ben Ali has silenced all
dissenting voices in Tunisian with the help of a 130,000 strong police
force, RSF says. The media, privately or publicly owned, is uniformly
obedient and any news that suggests criticism of the regime is
forbidden.
Visit these links:
- RSF: www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=4882
- CPJ: www.cpj.org/protests/03ltrs/Tunisia10feb03pl.html
- IFJ: www.ifj.org/publications/press/pr/030206tunisia.html
- Amnesty International:
http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/countries/tunisia?OpenView&Start=1&Count=3
0&Expandall