On Saturday, the National Union of Tunisian Journalists, with support from the Union of Culture and Information, organized a general press strike held on September 17 to “oppose attacks against journalists from authorities who are desperate to treat journalists as criminals on the basis of repressive laws,” according to a press statement.
Tunisian rights groups, as well as international organizations Human Rights Watch and Article 19, have condemned the recent arrests of journalists, including Zied e-Heni who was arrested on Friday for questioning the prosecution’s case of cameraman Mourad Mehrezi. El-Heni was released on Monday after posting bail and spending three days in prison.
El-Heni’s arrest led to a public outcry marked by marches, sit-ins, and online petitions. In response, on September 16 President Moncef Marzouki stated that freedom of expression and opinion was a “sacred right”, and according to Mosaique FM, called for new laws that would coincide with the Declaration of Human Rights’ stance on freedom of speech. The National Union of Tunisian Journalists also assured the public that they would continue to work to implement Decree 115, which would protect journalists from harassment and get rid of prison sentences for charges against journalists.
That same day, Ennahdha released a statement on its Facebook page expressing its support for freedom of expression and the “free exercise of [journalists’] noble profession.” It reiterated that freedom of expression is a cornerstone of Tunisian democracy and that a reformed media should be able to “fulfill its national duty in providing news and criticism within a framework of freedom, honesty, and fairness.” At the same time, Ennadha explained that the judiciary is an independent body without a link to any specific political party, and that the state should convene a national dialogue to reform the legal system to ensure afree media.
The UGTT, which has been at the helm of negotiations between the opposition and the ruling coalition, released a public statement on its Facebook page on Tuesday that voiced the organization’s support for today’s strike and condemned the recent charges against journalist. Newspapers and online news sites have placed a black banner on their pages in support of today’s strike.
Freedom of Expression is the wish of any Society with true aspirations for democratic reforms . It’s a precondition in order to create the overall transparency, being the real purpose of it all . We should perhaps also agree that we’re still at the very beginning of a long process called “Democracy”, where freedom of expression suppose to be one of its cornerstones, indeed . But the pace of any Process is determined only by Time that brings the certain degree of “maturity”, needed to tune up correctly with the right to freedom of expression & its ethical codes . Maturity means awareness, sense of responsibility, soberness, professionalism & objectivity, being neutral, and no dirty money involved whatsoever . We’ll have to say though, we ‘re still not there yet . And those who are yelling the top of their lungs, claiming they want it all-and they want it now (!) , would probably fail the test, definitely for lacking knowledge of basic ethical codes . If you read the national press on a daily basis, you’d constantly stumble into clumsy reporting, oftentimes too hasty in drawing conclusions, too stressed and above all, too skeptic, too inciting, conspiracy minded, never happy about anything, doesn’t always present tangible evidence to a report or an article . This is precisely what has to change first . Because when one reads unfounded crap, what’s the use ? Without re-checking the source and re-re-checking the facts, news can be misleading . National Press has no future if it’ll emulate social media approach . There lies the trap of neglecting any codes of decency altogether, under the pretext of the notion “freedom of expression” that would sound more or less like “freedom of-messing-things-up” .
Let’s be more honest about the situation here in tunisia, and let us try to come to reason just by admitting that during two decades, under a mobster regime, all press institutions were contaminated from the inside, and were all forced to bend to the will of the cosa-nostra, and that it would be a wishful thinking to believe that the very same institutions who used to glorify that corrupt regime, can suddenly transform into saviors of democratic values ? My nose (!) . And even if they do, where have they learnt these values, if they spent 20 + years inventing all kinds of ways to be and to stay on the side of a despised totalitarian regime ? They couldn’t have come clean so easily, even if we’d have wanted to .
Therefore my slogan to whom it may concern : Freedom of press is fine…..but you have to earn it, first . After that, we can talk .