Tunisian journalist Chadha Hadj Mbarek is serving a five-year prison sentence on anti-state charges over her involvement with a digital content company.
In September 2021, Mbarek, a journalist and a social media content editor at local independent content creation services firm Instalingo, was arrested at her home and held for five days in the city of Sousse, south of the capital Tunis, on anti-state charges, according to the journalist’s brother, Amen Hadj Mbarek, who spoke to CPJ over the phone,
On June 19, 2023, a judge dismissed the case and charges against Mbarek. However, the state prosecutor filed an appeal, and on July 22, 2023, Tunisian security forces stormed Mbarek’s home in Sousse and re-arrested her pending investigation for the same case.
On February 5, 2025, a Tunis court sentenced Mbarek to five years in prison after convicting her of “conspiring against state security” and “committing an offense against the President of the Republic.”
In October 2024, a judge transferred Mbarek’s trial from Sousse to another court in Tunis, forcing her family and lawyer to travel to see her during hearings, according to a local journalist following the case, who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.
Mbarek is one of 41 people prosecuted in connection to their work at Instalingo since September 2021 due to accusations that Instalingo was hired by members of the Ennahda opposition party to distribute content critical of President Kais Saied’s government.
Mbarek was previously not listed in CPJ’s prison census because the organization was not aware of the link between her social media work and her arrest. Local journalists told CPJ her arrest was the beginning of a renewed crackdown on the media which intensified in the lead-up to Saied’s reelection in October 2024.
Mbarek was first held at Al-Mas’adin prison in Sousse, before her transfer to Belli prison in the city of Nabeul in 2025. She currently has been diagnosed with two malignant tumors in her stomach and chest, back and arm pain, kidney disease, high blood pressure that is resulting in vision loss, and hearing loss that worsened in custody due to lack of medical attention. The prison authorities permit treatments but have not scheduled any surgeries for her tumors as of January 2026, according to Mbarek’s brother.
Mbarek’s next appeal hearing is scheduled on January 9, 2026, after the first two hearings were repeatedly postponed.
In early 2026, CPJ emailed the presidency’s office requesting comment on Mbarek’s case but did not receive a reply.