(WPFC/IFEX) – The following is a resolution on Tunisia passed by members of the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations, meeting in Belgrade for World Press Freedom Day, 3 May 2004. The organisations that have signed on to the resolution are listed below: INTER AMERICAN PRESS ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BROADCASTING INTERNATIONAL PRESS INSTITUTE WORLD […]
(WPFC/IFEX) – The following is a resolution on Tunisia passed by members of the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations, meeting in Belgrade for World Press Freedom Day, 3 May 2004. The organisations that have signed on to the resolution are listed below:
INTER AMERICAN PRESS ASSOCIATION
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BROADCASTING
INTERNATIONAL PRESS INSTITUTE
WORLD ASSOCIATION OF NEWSPAPERS
WORLD PRESS FREEDOM COMMITTEE
TUNISIA
The Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations, meeting in Belgrade for World Press Freedom Day, 3 May 2004, calls upon the organizers of the World Summit on the Information Society to reconsider their plans to hold the follow-up summit in 2005 in Tunis.
Recent events in Tunisia have shown that the country continues to violate its commitments under the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to respect free speech and press freedom.
On 6 April, eight Internet users were sentenced to prison terms of up to 26 years by a Tunis court. The convicted Internet users were accused of promoting terrorist attacks on the sole basis of files they downloaded from the Internet. Among the eight sentenced persons, seven were aged between 17 and 22 at the time of their alleged offences.
On 27 March, police dispersed members of human rights and political opposition groups who had gathered in front of the state broadcaster’s headquarters in Tunis. The demonstration, led by a group of ten organisations and five political parties, was part of a national press freedom campaign that is currently underway. Protesters wanted to hand over a letter to the director of the state broadcaster demanding that civil society groups be granted access to the Tunisian airwaves. Police dispersed the protesters less than an hour after the start of the demonstration.
In the beginning of March, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the world’s largest journalists’ group, announced the suspension and provisional expulsion of the state-oriented Tunisian Journalists’ Association (AJT) from membership in the IFJ, following complaints over the failure of the AJT to adequately defend the rights of journalists in Tunisia.
The January attack on journalist and press freedom activist Sihem Bensedrine by three unknown assailants illustrates one of the more direct forms of pressure journalists must contend with in Tunisia.
Unless Tunisia respects human rights, notably freedom of expression and press freedom, plans to meet in Tunis should be abandoned. The summit should be transferred to a country known to respect press freedom, or cancelled altogether.
