Tunisian rights teams on Tuesday accused the electoral authority of “threatening” press freedom, after it sued bloggers and media retailers for alleged violations throughout a ballot on a brand new structure.
Last week, the ISIE elections authority filed 24 authorized complaints towards media organisations and bloggers within the North African nation, accusing them of insults, “attacking the dignity of voters”, spreading false news and receiving overseas funds.
The supposed offences befell forward of a July vote on a brand new structure boosting the powers of the presidential system, a yr after President Kais Saied staged a dramatic energy seize within the birthplace of the Arab Spring.
In a joint assertion on Tuesday, 28 organisations stated ISIE had “targeted freedom of expression to the point where it was carrying out censorship against media organisations, in a blatant violation of the law”.
The organisations — together with the SNJT journalists’ union, the Tunisian Association for Rights and Freedoms and the Tunisian Organisation Against Torture — accused ISIE of “acting like a police force censoring public opinion and the media”.
“We find it odd that ISIE was not interested in the transparency of the electoral process and ensuring a proper and free election, rather than focusing its efforts on monitoring people’s opinions, imposing censorship, prosecuting those with opinions, and threatening candidates, media outlets and NGOs (non-governmental organisations),” they stated.
The referendum, adopted by a December 17 vote for a parliament largely stripped of any energy, have been key milestones in Saied’s roadmap following his energy seize in July final yr.
Tunisian and overseas rights teams have warned that his actions threaten the one democracy to have emerged from the Arab Spring uprisings.
