By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Journalists in Tunisia on Thursday converged in the capital Tunis, to protest against “repressive” anti-terror legislation which they say are targeted at the media.
The protest was triggered by a 5-year jail term slammed on a broadcaster earlier this week.
At the National Union of Journalists headquarters in Tunis, the journalists kept chanting, “We are journalists, not terrorists” and “Freedom for the Tunisian press.”
The protest follows a court’s use of anti-terrorism laws on Tuesday to increase to five years a jail term handed to Khalima Guesmi, a journalist at Mosaique FM radio station, after he appealed a one-year sentence delivered in November.
In a statement by his lawyer, he said, Guesmi was found guilty of having intentionally disclosed “information relating to operations of interception, infiltration, audiovisual surveillance or data collection.”
“There is a frank and clear (political) orientation towards lockdown and repression, which targets disobedient media,” said Mahdi Jlassi, president of the journalists’ union.
He cautioned against the witch-hunt of media practitioners, saying “We are once again raising the alarm against the rollback of freedoms in this country and the legal proceedings targeting journalists, lawyers and trade unionists, and other people for comments, articles, or even a song.”
On Monday, two Tunisian students were reportedly detained after posting a satirical song on social media that criticised police and laws against drug use.
Jlassi added that around 20 journalists are currently being prosecuted for their work.
Several local and international rights groups and trade unions on Tuesday warned “against the seriousness of the repressive direction of the current authorities” and called on activists and civil society “to mobilise to defend freedoms and human rights”.
Since President Kais Saied launched a power grab on July 25, 2021, these groups have criticised the decline in civic freedoms in Tunisia.
