10 Apr 12 | Middle East and North Africa
Anti-government protesters clashed with police in the streets of Tunis over the weekend as they attempted to defy a ban prohibiting demonstrations on the capital’s main avenue.
Protesters raising anti-government slogans took to the streets on 9 April to celebrate Martyrs’ Day in commemoration of those killed by French troops on the same date in 1938, but were soon faced with a tough crack down from police.
Tear gas and batons were used to disperse protesters who were in defiance of the ban, introduced by the Interior Ministry on 28 March, prohibiting demonstrations on Habib Bourguiba Avenue. On 14 January 2011, thousands of protesters gathered on the emblematic avenue to call for the fall of the regime of Ben Ali the emblematic avenue.
While covering the Martyrs’ Day protest and the clashes between protesters and police, bloggers and journalists got a taste of police brutality. Monji Khadhraoui, General Secretary of the National Syndicate for Tunisian Journalists (SNJT) told Index on Censorship that 13 journalists from both national and foreign press were assaulted.
Meriem Ben Ghazi, a young journalist for Tunisia Live was verbally abused and threatened by three police officers in plain clothes, whilst using an iPad to live stream the protest on the interent. She was assaulted even though she had her press card with her, and told police that she was a journalist.
Ben Ghazi to Index: “one police officer said to me ‘If you do not go home, we will beat you.’ They struck the Ipad with their batons, and they also tried to arrest our cameraman. We were not the only ones. We saw many journalists being assaulted.”
Julie Schneider, the Tunis correspondent for the French newspaper Le Point was also assaulted, despite telling police that she was a journalist. In a testimony published on the website of the newspaper, Schneider described the abuse by the police:
“In few minutes, I fell to the ground. I was beaten on my back, and on my behind…I was only thinking about my camera, my memory card, and the shots that I took. I do not know how much time it took…Finally, I could hear my camera being smashed on the sidewalk…A representative of the Democratic Modernist Pole intervened and screamed that I was a journalist. I repeated the same thing, but nothing. I was beaten again on my head.”
The SNJT decided to stop its coverage of all the activities of the Interior Ministry and those of Ennhdha (the ruling party) which the syndicate accuses of “sending its militias” to assault journalists. Zied el-Hani, a journalist, and an executive member of the SNJT told private radio station Mosaique FM that he was verbally abused by “militias belonging to Ennahdha”.
Prominent blogger Fatma Riahi (who uses the alias Fatma Arabicca) was beaten by a police officer in plain clothes, and she was immediately transferred to a hospital.
“We took to the streets to demand our right to free expression, but the police of Larayedh (Minister of Interior) — no longer the police of Ben Ali — the police of Ennhdha oppressed us, because we do not hold the same opinion”, she said.
The French language web magazine, Kapitalis also reported that its editor-in-chief Zohra Abid was beaten by a police officer.
Almost 15 months after the fall of the autocratic rule of Ben Ali, journalists are still being assaulted for doing their job. The battle for freedom of speech and a free press seems to be far from over in the birth place of the so-called Arab Spring.
05 Apr 12 | Index Index, minipost
The executive editor of a regional daily newspaper in Nepal has been brutally murdered. Yadav Poudel, from Mechi Times, and who has also worked for Kathmandu-based Avenues Television station and the “Rajdhani” national daily newspaer was found murdered in the early hours of Wednesday morning (4 April). Preliminary investigations suggest the journalist was stabbed to death at around 12.30am on Wednesday morning.
05 Apr 12 | Index Index, minipost
A number of incidents in the last few weeks have raised concerns over the harassment of journalists in Uzbekistan. On 26 March, independent journalist Viktor Krymzalov was convicted of defamation for an article which was published without a byline. The plaintiff “assumed” it was written by Krymzalov, but no evidence was provided to support the claim. Journalist Elena Bondar was charged with with “inciting national, racial, ethnic or religious hatred,” after sending letters to the media about alleged government harassment. Novaya Gazeta journalist Victoria Ivleva was recently denied entry to the country.
05 Apr 12 | Middle East and North Africa
Journalist Yousef Al Shayeb, detained by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank town of Ramallah, was released on bail on Monday “pending investigation” after eight days of incarceration. Al Shayeb began a hunger strike “in the name of press freedom” three days in, after a court renewed his detention order for a further 15 days. His release is seen as being due to the success of his fellow journalists in publicising the case, especially following fresh efforts by the Attorney General to prevent his release on Tuesday.
Al Shayeb is accused of “slander and defamation” and was held while the authorities “searched for evidence” to support the charges brought against him. These accusations came from two government officials: the Foreign Minister Riyad Malki and the head of the Palestinian Diplomatic Mission to France. A conviction for defamation of a public official could result in Al Shayeb imprisonment for two years, and the damages sought by the Minister and the Head of the Mission total 6 million USD.
It is the circumstances surrounding Al Shayeb’s incarceration that present increasingly damning evidence against the Palestinian Authority, who have targeted Al Shayeb and his employer, the Jordanian Al Ghad newspaper, following a story he published in January. The article in question “accused Palestinian Authority deputy ambassador Safwat Ibraghit in Paris of recruiting Arab students to spy on Islamic groups in France and abroad, and sharing that information with both Palestinian and foreign intelligence agencies,” according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), who proclaimed their outrage in a report on Wednesday. The article also accused the Director of the Palestinian National Fund Abu Nabil, the head of the Palestinian Diplomatic Mission Hael al-Fahoum of corruptly promoting Ibraghit to his post, and the Foreign Minister Riyad Malki of covering up the entire scandal.
According to the CPJ as well as local media sources, the Palestinian Authority also pressured Al Ghad, resulting in them firing Al Shayeb shortly after he was first questioned in January; he had worked for the paper for a decade. Al Shayeb has also come under pressure to reveal his sources, but has maintained his journalistic right to protect them following his initial arrest and questioning in January. The Palestinian Centre for Development and Media Freedoms has stressed that under Palestinian law, no journalist is required to reveal their sources unless the subject is considered a matter “of national security” or they are required to do so by a court order.
In an effort to correct the negative reports written about them following Al Shayeb’s arrest and hunger strike, the Palestinian Authority have made themselves look unfamiliar with the concept of a free press. The Foreign Minister told local news agency Ma’an that journalists had reacted “emotionally” to the arrest of their colleague, and that they should be willing to hear both sides of the story, as then they would understand who the true victims were. He also maintained that Al Shayeb knowingly published “falsehoods” in the report, but failed to explain why this would be grounds for arrest and detention. On Wednesday, the cabinet issued a communiqué following its weekly meeting which stated it “continues to protect journalists’ rights to work freely”, yet also asked journalists “to maintain professional standards, particularly on public affairs issues.”
Such attitudes seem likely to further increase public dissatisfaction with the body. In a pole on the Ma’an website, an overwhelming majority of 84.9 per cent of responses responded to the question “PA detention of journalists for libel accusation is primarily a failure of?” with “The PA’s ability to tolerate criticism.” Al Shayeb’s arrest also came at the same time as the authority announced, without irony, that it would be issuing a press freedom award. Many journalists as well as the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate have subsequently said that they will boycott the award in light of recent events.
Ruth Michaelson is a freelance journalist based in Ramallah. Follow her on Twitter @_Ms_R
