Tunisia

Tunisian journalist Slim Boukhdir has been released from prison four months before the end of his sentence. The freelance journalist, set free on July 21, was held since November 26, 2007 in very harsh prison conditions at the civil jail in Sfax, 230 km south of the capital. Boukhdir, 39, is correspondent for the pan-Arab London-based newspaper al Quds al Arabi and for the website of satellite...

Leaders of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today welcomed the “historic reform” within Tunisian journalism following the creation of a new union of journalists and the lifting of a two-year ban on the IFJ’s website, only weeks after the federation accused the government of being “stuck in a political groove of media manipulation.” Tunisia’s journalists created a national trade...

Press freedom in Tunisia is going thorough one of its worst phases. There have been blatant attempt to silence subversive voices through censorship and intimidation. Judicial courts are appallingly used to infringe on the fundamental human right to freedom of expression, enshrined in Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Tunisia has both signed and

A Tunis criminal court has dismissed a libel case against the editor of an online newspaper after the plaintiff decided to withdraw his complaint, delayed reports have said. Charges of defamation had been leveled against Omar Mestiri, the editor of the online newspaper Kalima, by Tunisian lawyer Mohammed Baccar that could have led to his imprisonment for up to three years. The suit was a result of...