Posts Tagged ‘Tunisia’
March 29th, 2012
A
Tunisian journalist was
physically attacked after being ejected from a political meeting last week. Al Jazeera journalist Lotfi Hajji was officially invited to a meeting on 24 March which brought together several political parties, but was ejected after some participants complained that he had a different political approach. The microphone which was being used to record the meeting was
reportedly stolen and destroyed. After he was forced to leave the meeting, Hajji was severely assaulted.
February 23rd, 2012
A Tunisian court today released Nasreddine Ben Saida, general director of the Arabic-language daily Attounissia, who was arrested on 15 February after his newspaper
published a photo German-Tunisian footballer Sami Khedira with his naked girlfriend. Rim Boukriba, a journalist for Attounisia, expressed her discontent about the arrest. “He was treated like a criminal … did he kill someone? Is he too dangerous to stay at large?” she said. “The authorities who jailed Ben Saida are seeking to silence us … their problem is not with the picture itself … but with the newspaper, which is popular, and widely read”, she told Index. “The picture is only an excuse,” she added. The court is expected to issue a verdict on the case on 8 March.
February 17th, 2012
Three
Tunisian journalists have
been arrested on charges of offending public morality following the publication of a nude photograph. The Attounissia newspaper
printed a photograph of Real-Madrid footballer Sami Khedira covering the breasts of his otherwise naked girlfriend, model Lena Gercke. The photograph drew an angry response from the country’s public prosecutor, resulting in the arrest of the newspaper’s publisher Nasreddine Ben Said, Habib Guizani, its editor-in- chief, and its world editor Hedi Hidhri. The photo was a reprint of a 2012 cover of the German edition of GQ Magazine.
February 3rd, 2012
The Tunisian Internet Agency was the Ben Ali regime’s instrument for censoring the web. Now, as it attempts to break ties with the past, Afef Abrougui talks to its CEO about the online challenges facing Tunisia
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January 6th, 2012
Two female journalists have
been assaulted by police whilst covering protests in
Tunisia. Sana Farhat of French-language daily Le Temps and Maha Ouelhezi from news website
Web Manager Center were assaulted by plain clothed officers as they covered a demonstration by university teachers outside the ministry of higher education in Tunis yesterday. Farhat had her press card and camera seized, and was dragged along the ground by her hair after she demanded her equipment be returned. The video Farhat was making was wiped by officers. Ouelhezi’s camera was also seized and smashed by an officer.
November 2nd, 2011
The
Paris-based office of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical weekly magazine,
was petrol-bombed early this morning [2 November] in advance of the publication of an issue “guest-edited” by prophet Mohammed, marking the victory of the Islamist Ennahda Party in
Tunisia’s elections.The special issue,
which also featured a cartoon of prophet Mohammed saying “100 lashes if you don’t die of laughter!” on the front page, was scheduled to hit news stands today. The magazine’s website was also reported to have been hacked, with a message in English and Turkish condemning the publication. In 2007, the weekly reprinted the widely-protested cartoons of prophet Muhammad, which were published by the Danish newspaper
Jyllands Posten.
October 26th, 2011
Rachel Greenspan reports from the Silicon Valley Human Rights Conference, where industry and activists met to discuss free expression online
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October 24th, 2011
Tunisians flocked to voting stations yesterday in the country’s first-ever free elections, but only the cultivation of an independent media will safeguard democracy and free expression, writes Rohan Jayasekera
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