‘Down with dictatorship’: Tunisians rally in opposition to gov’t crackdown on media | Media Information

Demonstration comes after two Tunisian commentators essential of President Saeid had been sentenced to jail.

A number of hundred Tunisians have marched by means of the capital, Tunis, chanting “down with the dictatorship” as they protested a spate of arrests below a presidential decree critics say is getting used to stifle dissent.

Since Tunisia’s 2011 revolution, the nation has been thought of among the many extra open media environments within the Arab world. However politicians, journalists and unions say that freedom of the press has confronted a severe risk below the rule of President Kais Saied who got here to energy following free elections in 2019.

Two Tunisian media figures acquired one-year jail sentences in current days after making feedback the authorities deemed essential, within the newest prosecutions below Decree 54 issued by Saied in 2022 banning the “spreading of false information”.

“Down with the decree,” the demonstrators shouted as they marched by means of Tunis on Friday.

“Dictator Kais, it’s your flip now,” they added, in allusion to the Arab Spring rebellion, which toppled longtime chief Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.

Two years after his election, Saied shut down the elected parliament and moved to rule by decree. He additionally assumed authority over the judiciary, a step that the opposition referred to as a coup.

Since then, lots of his critics have been prosecuted or despatched to jail.

On Wednesday, broadcaster Borhen Bsaies and political commentator Mourad Zeghidi had been each jailed for a 12 months – six months for spreading “false information” and an additional six months for “spreading information that features false info with the goal of defaming others”.

Throughout the listening to, each Bsaies and Zeghidi had defended their “journalistic work”.

Zghidi’s lawyer, Kamel Massoud, condemned Decree 54 as “unconstitutional”.

“When politics enters the courtroom, justice leaves,” he mentioned.

Tunisia has now imprisoned a complete of six journalists, together with Bsaies and Zeghidi, since Saeid’s Decree 54 got here into pressure.

In the meantime, greater than 60 journalists, attorneys and opposition figures have been prosecuted below the identical decree, in accordance with the Nationwide Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists.

In Could, police arrested 10 folks, together with journalists, attorneys and officers of civil society teams, in what Amnesty Worldwide referred to as a “deep crackdown” focusing on activists and journalists. Human Rights Watch has referred to as on Tunisia to respect free speech and civil liberties.

In January, Tunisian authorities additionally arrested journalist Samir Sassi, on “terrorism” allegations.

The arrests have drawn criticism from the United Nations, the European Union and the US, in addition to Tunisia’s former colonial ruler France.

Saied has dismissed the criticism as overseas “interference”.

He additionally rejected accusations of authoritarian rule and mentioned his steps had been geared toward ending years of “chaos and corruption” within the nation.