Tunisian NGO Stands up to Attacks on Human Rights Defenders

(EPA photo)

The government of Tunisian President Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali (above) has toughened up its repression on press freedom and other human rights groups and their websites in that country.

Ben Ali's 21 years monopoly on power has a long history of repression on opposition groups and courageous members of a struggling independent press. And the latest wave of attacks has produced the following reaction by the Tunisian Monitoring Group:

The members of the Tunisia Monitoring  Group (TMG), a coalition of 18 freedom of expression organisations who belong  to the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) network, are  concerned about recent attacks against human rights defenders and  representatives of independent media outlets in  Tunisia. The TMG believes that  these attacks are part of a broader pattern of intimidation against  journalists and free media advocates perpetrated by the Tunisian authorities  to curb freedom of expression in the country.

The TMG has been informed that the  website of "Kalima", an independent online newspaper that  has unsuccessfully attempted to register in the country since 2000, was  recently attacked by hackers who completely destroyed its content. The damage  was so severe that "Kalima's webmasters have been unable to access the site  since 8 October, and it will now need to be completely rebuilt. We are pleased  that "Kalima" will re-launch again and hope it will not be destroyed  again.

Disconcertingly, "Kalima's website, which was recently re-launched as a multimedia platform and archive and could  be a very important source of information for Tunisian citizens, is one of  several independent Tunisian and foreign websites with a political or human  rights focus that have been intermittently inaccessible to Internet users in  Tunisia during the past several years.

Furthermore, members of the TMG  strongly condemn the recent attacks by plainclothes political police officers  against "Kalima's editor and founder Sihem Bensedrine, who is also head of  the Observatory for the Freedom of Press, Publishing and Creation in Tunisia  (OLPEC), IFEX's member in Tunisia. Bensedrine was subjected to physical and  verbal abuse in downtown Tunis on her way to a solidarity  rally for writer and activist Zakia Dhifaoui, currently serving an eight-month  prison sentence in connection with her human rights advocacy  work.

Commenting on the incident, TMG Chair  and Index on Censorship Associate Editor Rohan Jayasekera said: "The Tunisian  authorities' intolerance of peaceful, independent opinion is well known and  well recorded and increasingly condemned by  Tunisia's international partners.  Yet this kind of thuggery continues to prevail."

Naziha Rjiba, Deputy President of OLPEC  and a well-known writer, is now also under intensifying pressure. The TMG is  alarmed to hear that she has been summoned to appear  before a public prosecutor on 27 October, after she wrote a critical opinion  piece in the opposition weekly "Mouatinoun" about the destruction of  "Kalima" in which she  accused Tunisian authorities of being behind the attack. The 22 October issue  of "Mouatinoun" has been banned.

Rejiba's  husband, Mokhtar  Jallali, a member of the National  Council for Liberties in Tunisia (CNLT), is currently  in jail after being involved in a fatal traffic accident for which he was not  responsible. CNLT says that he is being detained in order to "settle scores  with rights defenders, because Jallali is a member of CNLT and the husband of  Rejiba, whose pen name is Om Zied. CNLT says "the family has already received  indirect threats targeting their security and freedom."

In a separate incident this week,  Internet writer, lawyer, and human rights activist Mohammed Abbou was  prevented by immigration authorities from leaving  Tunisia. On 22 October, Abbou was  about to board an airplane to Paris to participate in a live broadcast for the  Qatar-based satellite TV station, Al-Jazeera, when immigration police  prevented him from leaving the country on the grounds that he lacked  documentary proof that his period of conditional release was over. 

Abbou was sentenced in 2005 to 18  months in prison for "having published information that would disturb public  order" and for "insulting the judiciary" in an article posted on the Tunisnews website in August 2004, as well as to two years in prison for an alleged  incident at a 2002 conference. He was released from prison in July 2007 and  his period of conditional release ended in August 2008.

Members of the TMG urge President Zine  El Abidine Ben Ali and government authorities to abide by Tunisia's  international human rights obligations, as well as to commitment to freedom of expression and access to information, as reported in the final documents of  the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), which took place in Tunis  from 16-18 November 2005. The TMG has  written  to Frank La Rue, the new UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection  of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, requesting he monitor the  situation and visit Tunisia.