Tunisian airport officials confiscate CPJ publications
On Saturday, Tunis airport customs officials confiscated two copies of CPJ’s annual report, Attacks on the Press, as well as five copies of the Arabic-language translation of the Middle East and North Africa section of the book from Tunisian rights lawyer Mohamed Abbou and journalist Lotfi Hidouri on their return from Morocco, the two men told CPJ.
Attacks on the Press 2009: Tunisia
Top Developments• Government engineers ouster of independent journalist union leaders.• Two journalists are jailed in retaliation for critical reporting. Key Statistic 97: Percentage of newspaper campaign coverage that was devoted to President Ben Ali. President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali was re-elected to a fifth term with 90 percent of the vote amid severe restrictions on…
Ben Brik, still jailed in Tunisia: ‘Chains will certainly break!’
“When people want to live, destiny must surely respond. Darknesss will disappear, chains will certainly break!”Journalist Taoufik Ben Brik, 49, spurred admiration among his relatives and lawyers at a Tunis appeals court on Saturday when he chanted these two verses by Abou El Kacem Chebbi, Tunisia’s most well-known poet. This unexpected recitation of Chebbi’s verses,…
Prison term completed, Tunisian still behind bars
New York, January 20, 2010—An appeals court in the city of Nabeul refused today to release Tunisian Zuhair Makhlouf despite his completion of a three-month prison term imposed in October. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the court’s decision and demands authorities release Makhlouf immediately.
Tunisian authorities mistreating imprisoned journalist
New York, December 11, 2009—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the health and detention conditions of Tunisian journalist Taoufik Ben Brik and the flagrant and recurrent violations of his right to see his wife and lawyers.
A Tunisian blogger speaks out: ‘The candles are lit’
My country’s government brags unabashedly that it has not passed any laws that require government authorization to establish an electronic publication or a Web site or a blog on the Internet. Those that cheerlead for this government rely on this point to propagate the lie they call “the freedom to publish electronically” in Tunisia.
CPJ calls for end to Tunisian campaign against Al-Jazeera
New York, September 24, 2009—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a Tunisian government-backed smear campaign against the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite television station. The campaign has had a negative impact on freedom of expression in Tunisia.
After CPJ letter, Tunis grants journalist freedom to travel
Nearly a week after CPJ sent a letter to Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali urging him to end the “ongoing cycle of repression of critical journalists and media outlets,” Tunisia’s Ministry of Justice and Human Rights told Mohamed Abbou, a prominent human rights lawyer and writer, in a phone call on Saturday that…