The Tunisian Regime Continues Roughing up the Media
It takes a lot of courage to be a journalist in Tunisia. One risks being the punching bag of a repressive police force or worse.
Take Faten Hamdi, a reporter of Kalima Radio, one of the few independent media outlets braving the official harassment left in that country. She was covering student protests at a local school when she "was savagely assaulted by a group of policemen," reports Observatoire OLPEC's Secretary General Sihem Ben Sedrine.
She was then arrested and violently dragged to a police station. More from Ben Sedrine:
The reporter was finally released at 8:00 p.m., after four hours in detention. The other detained students were released at the same time.
Given the seriousness of this incident, which constitutes a flagrant attack on press freedom and the rights of journalists, OLPEC:
- condemns the violent and barbaric actions of the security agencies, in particular the El Gorjani police, which violate the law as well as the physical integrity of a journalist;
- believes this incident to be reflective of a systematic practice by Tunisian authorities against journalists and human rights advocates;
- calls on Tunisian authorities to cease the harassment and attacks on journalists and respect freedom of the press and the media as the world celebrates 60 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
We have recently reported on other cases of official harassment of the Tunisian media here and here.
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They seized her tape recorder and destroyed it. They also searched her purse and tore up her ID card. The officers then tried get to Hamdi to collaborate, offering her money or a military posting if she agreed to leave Kalima Radio.
Posted by: Dan Robison | December 01, 2008 at 07:33 AM