• Media

Media

This paper discusses press freedom in Tunisia, presenting the findings of a visit by a delegation from Reporters Without Borders at the end of 2008. It argues that two different types of media co-exist in Tunisia. The more compliant of the two benefits from huge state subsidies and significant advertising revenue, while the other media has to survive in difficult financial conditions.

The paper suggests that there has been no let-up in the surveillance of opposition figures and the independent press by the Tunisian regime since the organisation’s previous visit in June 2005. It notes that the President backs modernisation of the press but not its independence.

The paper finds that organisations are hit by electronic censorship:

• email addresses are blocked, messages sent do not arrive or their content gets changed and replaced by spam
• Reporters Without Borders’ website is still censored in Tunisia, along with those of opposition parties and independent media
• anyone wanting to use a computer in a public cyber cafe must produce an identity document
• each user has to fill out a form for the Tunisian Internet Agency (ATI) which directly manages users’ access accounts

The paper makes several recommendations, including:

• Tunisian authorities should put an end to police, judicial and administrative harassment aimed at the opposition press
• freedom to inform the public is a right that should be accessible to all and should never be curbed by the lack of permission
• foreign diplomats posted in Tunis should renew or strengthen their support for journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders who are only exercising their right to express themselves freely
• foreign governments should make the issue of free expression one of their priorities in their contacts with the Tunisian authorities

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