Tunisia Remands Journalists Arrested Over Critical Comments

A Tunisian court on Wednesday ordered two journalists to be remanded in custody until the completion of investigations into critical comments, a spokesman for the tribunal said

Tunis, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th May, 2024) A Tunisian court on Wednesday ordered two journalists to be remanded in custody until the completion of investigations into critical comments, a spokesman for the tribunal said.

Broadcaster Borhen Bssais and political commentator Mourad Zeghidi were arrested Saturday under a decree criminalising "spreading false information", among other charges, spokesman Mohamed Zitouna said.

Zeghidi is being investigated over social media statements last February and a post in support of Mohamed Boughalleb, another journalist and critic of President Kais Saied who has been detained separately.

Bssais was arrested on accusations of "having harmed President Kais Saied through radio broadcasts and statements" online between 2019 and 2022, according to his lawyer Nizar Ayed.

Their trial is set to begin on May 22, according to their lawyers.

Both media figures are prosecuted under a law ratified by Saied in September 2022.

The law punishes people with up to five years in prison for the use of social media to "produce, spread (or) disseminate... false news" and "slander others, tarnish their reputation, financially or morally harm them".

Journalists and opposition figures have said it has been used to stifle dissent.

Since the decree came into force, more than 60 journalists, lawyers and opposition figures have been prosecuted under it, according to the National Union of Tunisian Journalists.

On the night Bssais and Zeghidi were taken into police custody, masked police acting under the same law raided the Tunisian bar association and arrested lawyer and political commentator Sonia Dahmani.

On Monday, another lawyer was forcibly arrested at the association's headquarters.

The president of the bar, Hatem Meziou, on Tuesday called for an end to "the abuse of power" and "violence" targeting the lawyers.

The journalists' union, in a statement on Wednesday, condemned the arrests, saying they were "a violation of the right to freedom of expression, press and publication, (and) a violation of the rules of criminal procedure".

It also said the use of Decree 54 to prosecute journalists was "a deliberate attack on the essence of press freedom and a vain attempt to intimidate journalists and media employees and sabotage public debate".

The private radio channel IFM, where Zeghidi and Bssais hosted a show, said it was suspending the programme until their release.

The European Union had expressed concern on Tuesday over a string of arrests of civil society figures in Tunisia -- the latest sign of a tightening clampdown on freedoms under Saied.

Non-governmental organisations have decried a rollback of freedoms in Tunisia since Saied began ruling by decree after a sweeping power grab in 2021.