Tunisian Journalist Taoufik Ben Brik, who has been in custody since October 2009, is in danger of losing his life as a result of his failing health, poor prison conditions and negligent care by prison officials, according to reports from the Tunisia Monitoring Group (TMG), a coalition of 20 press freedom organisations.
Ben Brik was sentenced to six months in prison on 26 November after foreign publications carried articles he had written that were critical of President Ben Ali. He was convicted on charges of assaulting a woman in the street after a traffic incident. The charges were widely seen as a fabricated effort to silence him.
In January, dozens of Tunisian journalists began a hunger strike to protest the detentions of Taoufik Ben Brik and another Tunisian journalist, Zouhair Makhlouf. On 30 January, an appeals court upheld Ben Brik’s six-month sentence. Makhlouf was released on 12 February after completing a four month sentence earlier this month.
The situation remains grim for independent and critical journalists in the North African country.
As highlighted in the <media 1276 – external-link-new-window>IPI World Press Freedom Review 2009 – Focus on the Middle East & North Afric</media>a, journalists in Tunisia continue to face arbitrary arrest and detention, physical attacks and harassment, as well as continuous surveillance and monitoring.
On 13 January this year, journalist Fahem Boukadous was sentenced to four years in prison for covering demonstrations in Gafsa against unemployment and corruption. According to human rights observers, Boukadous was sentenced on charges of fomenting unrest. Originally sentenced in absentia to six years in prison in December 2008, Boukadous was re-tried in January 2010 after a court annulled the original decision.
Mouldi Zouabi, a journalist with Radio Kalima, was arrested on 28 January 2010 and detained for eight hours and had his equipment confiscated by the Tunisian police, according to a report from Tunis-based press freedom group Observatoire pour la Liberté de Presse, d’Edition et de Creation (OLPEC). Zouabi believes his arrest was an effort to prevent him from carrying out a scheduled interview with Mohamed Bouebdelli, director of the Free University of Tunis, whose authorisation to work had recently been suspended until 2013, OLPEC reported.
Several other Radio Kalima journalists have been harassed and attacked since.
IPI Director David Dadge said: “It is unacceptable that the Tunisian government continues to imprison journalists for practising their profession. We urge the authorities to immediately release those reporters imprisoned because of their work. Furthermore, the security services must stop harassing and threatening journalists. The press freedom climate in Tunisia remains a cause for serious concern, and IPI will continue to highlight ongoing press freedom violations.”
In January, IPI spoke with Naziha Rjiba, editor at Kalima online magazine and OLPEC vice-president, about conditions for journalists in Tunisia. During the telephone interview, the line was repeatedly cut. Rjiba maintained that this was an example of deliberate alleged harassment by the authorities.
** A transcript of the interview follows:
IPI: How would you describe 2009 from the perspective of media freedom in Tunisia, and has press freedom improved or deteriorated?
Rjiba: With the latest punitive campaign against journalists, the little freedom we had is disappearing. There are three opposition newspapers that still appear. One has decided to appear once a month instead of once a week, because it lacks financial means. The other two continue to scrape by, but there are no independent newspapers.
IPI: Is there still a free press in Tunisia?
Rjiba: There are the newspapers of the opposition, and they are able to publish but they have huge problems, the problem of financing and also of distribution …
[LINE CUTS]
Rjiba: That’s better but they are cutting my phone line – which is a perfect response to your question. There is no free expression, even on the telephone. It’s incredible, but true.
IPI: Are they cutting your phone, is that what’s happening?
Rjiba: Yes, yes, that’s what’s happening. This just isn’t normal.
IPI: Can we try to continue?
Rjiba: Yes, yes, we can try.
IPI: So, you had already mentioned the financial pressures facing the media.
Rjiba: Yes. There is the financial problem and there is the distribution problem.
[LINE CUTS]
IPI: We talked a bit about the financial problems of the media. Are there other problems?
Rjiba: There is also the problem of distribution. If a paper expresses itself freely, it cannot circulate. It is quite simply stopped. Or efforts are made to limit its distribution.
IPI: How is that done?
Rjiba: Well, for example, the postal service – for those who have subscriptions – doesn’t deliver the paper. And then there are the distribution companies which don’t distribute properly, and then the police intimidate vendors. In some neighborhoods, the affluent ones, you see some copies of opposition newspapers, but not in the populist neighborhoods.
IPI: What needs to be changed for the situation to improve?
Rjiba: The government must change its behaviour towards the free press. It must accept a free press. It must understand that it is necessary – and better for everyone – for there to be a free press in Tunisia. That’s all. It’s not complicated. For the moment everything is being decided by those in power. I’d even say by the President and those helping him. The institutions are not functioning. It’s personal power. So these people need to be convinced that the press must no longer be targeted.
IPI: What is your prediction for the media in 2010?
Rjiba: It’s not clear. They are carrying on. I have had two journalists call me to say that their houses are surrounded by the police. It’s intimidation. Today, this happened. I don’t know why. It just happens. So, what can I hope for? I don’t have high hopes. But I wish it would change, that there be an understanding on the part of those in power that things need to change. But for the moment it’s not clear.
The TMG coalition of over 20 member organizations, including IPI, from the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), on 25 February relaunched its website (http://ifex.org/tunisia/tmg/).
