(IFEX-TMG) – The following is a joint letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan by members of the IFEX-TMG: UN Secretary-General Mr. Kofi Annan UN Headquarters First Avenue at 46th Street New York, NY 10017 Fax: +1 212 963 7055 / 4879 2 September 2005 Your Excellency Mr. Kofi Annan, As members of the Tunisia Monitoring […]
(IFEX-TMG) – The following is a joint letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan by members of the IFEX-TMG:
UN Secretary-General
Mr. Kofi Annan
UN Headquarters
First Avenue at 46th Street
New York, NY 10017
Fax: +1 212 963 7055 / 4879
2 September 2005
Your Excellency Mr. Kofi Annan,
As members of the Tunisia Monitoring Group (TMG), established in 2004 under the umbrella of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) to evaluate the conditions for participation in the WSIS in November, we are writing to you to express our deep concern at the upsurge in attacks on freedom of expression in Tunisia since our first fact-finding mission in January of this year. We therefore take this opportunity to urge you strongly to encourage the Tunisian authorities to act to put an end to these attacks, which in the minds of many call into question Tunisia’s suitability to host the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in November. Tunisia should be requested to respect its international commitments in the field of freedom of expression. We find it incredulous and deeply regretful that an International Summit on the Information Society be held in a country that in its daily practice does not show respect for the very base of any information society, freedom of expression, and two of its subsets: Freedom of the press and freedom to publish.
In January and again in May 2005 we met with Tunisians of different political and intellectual persuasions, including government ministers, and witnessed and documented attacks on freedom of expression and association and movement in a report entitled: “Tunisia: Freedom of expression under siege” (1). Members of the IFEX TMG will further conduct a third mission to Tunis from 6 to 10 September in order to meet officials and members of Tunisian civil society. The TMG is deeply concerned with the recent Tunisian authorities’ decision to prevent the independent Tunisian Journalists’ Syndicate (SJT) from holding its first congress on September 7-8, 2005. This ban casts a shadow over WSIS. We also hope that the Tunisian League of Human Rights (LTDH) will be able to hold its 6th Congress in Tunis (September 9-11, 2005) without interference from the Tunisian authorities.
Following months of research and monitoring of attacks on freedom of expression and harassment of journalists and others in Tunisia, we concluded that the credibility of the WSIS would be seriously compromised, and we feel that the international community as a whole, in particular the United Nations ought to assume a large responsibility for this — if the Tunisian authorities were not urged strongly to take the following measures as soon as possible and certainly before the holding of WSIS this November:
1- Release from prison human rights lawyer Mohamed Abbou and Hamadi Jebali, editor of the banned weekly Al-Fajr, who are imprisoned like hundreds of other Tunisians on charges related to the peaceful exercise of their basic right to freedom of expression and association.
Local, regional and international rights groups and Western governments maintain that these prisoners, known worldwide as political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, have neither used nor advocated the use of violence and have been denied the right to a fair trial.
Abbou was apprehended by the police in the streets of Tunis on March 1, 2005, less than 24 hours after posting an opinion piece on the Internet criticizing the Tunisian government’s decision to invite Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to the WSIS.
Paradoxically, he was sentenced by a criminal court in Tunis, following an unfair trial on April 28, 2005 to three and a half years of imprisonment for publishing statements last year “likely to disturb public order” and for “defaming the judicial process” and also for alleged “violence”, nearly three years ago, against a female lawyer close to the government. A Tunisian appeals court on June 10, 2005 confirmed his prison sentence following a hearing that fell far short of international standards for a fair trial, according to human rights defenders and diplomats in attendance.
The opinion piece used to indict Abbou was not the one he posted on the Internet on the eve of his arrest by the police, but another posted in August 2004 in which he compared the inhumane conditions in the US-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq to those prevailing in Tunisian prisons.
Arrested in 1991 following the publication in Al Fajr of an opinion piece by human rights lawyer Mohamed Nouri on the unconstitutionality of military courts, Jebali is currently serving a 16-year sentence for allegedly belonging to an “illegal association” (2) and attempting “to change the nature of the state”.
2- End arbitrary administrative sanctions and unrelenting police harassment compelling journalist Abdallah Zouari to live nearly 500 km from his wife and children and preventing him from earning a living or using public Internet cafes.
3- Release all banned books and publications, including those written by prominent democracy advocates like Mohamed Talbi and Moncef Marzouki, and edited by institutions committed to human rights education like the Arab Institute for Human Rights, the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women and the Temimi Foundation.
The IFEX TMG welcomed President Ben Ali’s announcement on May 27, 2005 to abolish the legal submission procedure (dépôt légal) applicable to the press, but made clear at the same time to the Tunisian authorities that the release of all blocked books and publications in Tunisia would be interpreted as “a step in the right direction”.
4- Recognize the inalienable right of civil society groups to operate freely and without any form of harassment of their leading figures and members. In particular, we call for the recognition of and respect for the right to freedom of association of the National Council for Liberties in Tunisia, the Tunis Center for the Independence of the Judiciary, the Association for the Struggle against Torture, the International Association to Support Political Prisoners, the League for Free Writers, Raid-Attac Tunisia and many other civil society groups.
We have also been particularly concerned at the recent attempt by the authorities to remove the leadership of the Executive Board of the Tunisian Association of Magistrates (TAM). This is especially troubling within the context of the absence of an independent judiciary in Tunisia.
The Executive Board of TAM reported on July 5, 2005 on the publication by some Tunisian newspapers of a petition being circulated by magistrates close to the Tunisian Ministry of Justice calling on the disavowal of the Executive Board and the organization of an extraordinary congress of TAM. This attempt to evict the legitimate leadership of TAM is an obvious “attack on the law of associations and on the statutes of TAM”.
5- End harassment of independent publishers, writers and journalists and leading figures of the Tunisian Journalists’ Syndicate, whose establishment in May 2004 was in conformity with the Tunisian Labor Code.
6- End the abusive application of the Law on Terrorism of December 10, 2003 and which unfortunately turned out, according to local and international human rights groups, to be a tool to silence and punish critics of the government.
7- Assure that the right to establish media outlets is not solely reserved to individuals or groups close to the government and establish a fair and transparent procedure for the award of broadcast licenses through an independent regulatory body.
8- Ensure that the right to access Internet cafes and to freely surf the Web is not restricted and end the practice of blocking of websites for their informational or political content.
The blatant conflict between the United Nations’ values and principles on the one hand and Tunisia’s record on freedom of expression and of the press on the other hand cannot be ignored any longer. Should the above measures be taken before WSIS this November, the credibility of both the UN and WSIS would be reinforced.
We would be delighted to meet you or some of your representatives attending the PrepCom before the holding of WSIS, for example on the occasion of WSIS PrepCom 3 in Geneva (September 19-30, 2005), in order to see how we can best assist you in reaching this goal.
Thank you for your attention to this letter. We look forward to your early reply.
Sincerely,
Members of the IFEX-TMG:
Article 19, UK
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE), Canada
Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR), Egypt
Index on Censorship, UK
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Belgium
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), The Netherlands
International Publishers’ Association (IPA), Switzerland
Journaliste en danger (JED), Democratic Republic of Congo
Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), Namibia
Norwegian PEN, Norway
World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC), Canada
World Association of Newspapers (WAN), France
World Press Freedom Committee (WPFC), USA
Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN (WiPC), UK
CC:
Mr. Yoshio Utsumi
ITU Secretary-General
International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
Place des Nations
1211 Geneva 20
Switzerland
*A version of this letter is also being sent to representatives of the European Union, Ministers of Foreign Affairs and representatives to the UN, including that of the USA.
1. For a full copy of this report, or more information, please see TMG website: http://campaigns.ifex.org/tmg
2. The inalienable right of civil society groups to organize, meet and operate freely is not respected in Tunisia. See item 4 of this letter and our Tunisia report entitled “Tunisia: Freedom of expression under siege” for more.
