Tunisian court affirms journalist’s prison sentence
New York, January 18, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a Tunisian appeals court’s ruling on Friday that upholds a one-year prison sentence against a journalist who had written articles critical of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and the first family. A court of appeal in Sfax, Tunisia’s second-largest city, confirmed a lower court’s…
Tunisian government denies passport to CPJ representative
New York, January 2, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the Tunisian government’s denial of a passport to Kamel Labidi, a freelance Tunisian journalist and CPJ’s Middle East representative. On July 17, Labidi, a Tunisian national, applied for a new passport at the Tunisian Embassy in Washington after losing his old one. A representative…
Tunisian writer sentenced to jail
New York, December 5, 2007— The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the one-year prison sentence handed down on Tuesday to a Tunisian freelance journalist known for his published criticism of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and members of the first family. A court in Sakiet Ezziet, in the suburbs of Sfax, Tunisia’s second-largest city…
Critical writer jailed in Tunisia
New York, November 27, 2007–The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by the detention of a Tunisian freelance journalist known for his published criticism of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and members of the first family. On Monday, police in Sfax, Tunisia’s second largest city, detained Slim Boukhdhir, a well-known blogger and contributor…
Tunisian court evicts weekly from office
New York, October 2, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply disturbed by a Tunisian court decision to evict the weekly Al-Mawkif from premises it has been using in downtown Tunis since 1994. On Monday, a misdemeanor court in Tunis ordered the eviction of Al-Mawkif, published since 1984 by the opposition Progressive Democratic Party (PDP),…
Tunisian Internet editor to stand trial
New York, August 1, 2007— The managing editor of a Tunisian online magazine is due to appear in court in Tunis on August 2 on charges of defamation that could lead to his imprisonment for up to three-and-a-half years, according to one of his lawyers. The charges against Tunisian rights activist Omar Mestiri stem from…
In Tunisia, an Internet writer is freed after 28 months
New York, July 25, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release from prison on Tuesday of a Tunisian human rights lawyer who had been jailed nearly 28 months because of online articles he wrote criticizing the Tunisian government. Mohammed Abbou and more than 20 other political prisoners were freed by order of President Zine…
The Moroccan Facade
Ahmed Reda Benchemsi, the 33-year-old publisher of the independent Moroccan weekly TelQuel, sensed someone was trying to send him a message. In a matter of months, two judges had ordered him to pay extraordinarily high damages in a pair of otherwise unremarkable defamation lawsuits.
Backsliders: The 10 countries where press freedom has most deteriorated
New York, May 2, 2007–Three nations in sub-Saharan Africa are among the places worldwide where press freedom has deteriorated the most over the last five years, a new analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists has found. Ethiopia, where the government launched a massive crackdown on the private press by shutting newspapers and jailing editors,…