18 results arranged by date
TUNISIA In a July 25 speech marking the 50th anniversary of the Tunisian Republic, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali proclaimed that his government had “enriched the information and communication landscape and offered opportunity for the expression of different opinions.” It was an Orwellian moment in a year in which the Ben Ali administration stepped…
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),…
New York, April 9, 2007—A prominent Tunisian correspondent and press freedom advocate was physically prevented from attending and covering a ceremony, the latest in a series of harassing incidents over the last three years. On Friday evening, Lotfi Hajji, head of the Tunisian Journalists Syndicate (SJT), was prevented from attending and covering a reception at…
TUNISIA Despite its election to the newly established U.N. Human Rights Council in May, Tunisia under the autocratic rule of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali continued to pursue a policy of muzzling critical media and harassing independent journalists and their families. In February, the U.N. vote approaching, Ben Ali pardoned Hamadi Jebali, editor of…
Your Excellency: We are writing to you as president of a country that is an elected member of the newly established United Nations Human Rights Council, to urge you to uphold the right to press freedom in Tunisia. The Council, which will meet later this month for the first time, is the main U.N. body tasked with promoting human rights. As an elected member Tunisia is required to “uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights,” according to the U.N. General Assembly resolution that established the Council.
TUNISIA Some Tunisian journalists had hoped that an influx of world business, media, and human rights figures attending a United Nations conference in Tunis in November might prompt the government to relax its grip on the local media. Instead, President Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali’s 18-year-old administration ran true to form, stifling the critical press and…
New York, August 25, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed deep concern today about Tunisian authorities’ continuing harassment of the recently formed Tunisian Journalists Syndicate (SJT) and the government’s apparent plan to prevent the group’s members from gathering in Tunis next month. Security officials in the capital, Tunis, interrogated SJT head Lotfi Hajji for five…
AUGUST 24, 2005 Posted: August 29, 2005 Lotfi Hajji, Tunisian Journalists Syndicate Tunisian Journalists Syndicate HARASSED Security officials in Tunis interrogated Lotfi Hajji, head of the Tunisian Journalists Syndicate (SJT), for five hours, the journalist told CPJ. A security official told Hajji that the government had decided to bar the SJT from holding its first…