”World Press Freedom Day” – The Muslim Brotherhood movement is the “biggest enemy” of Tunisian media
Tunisian journalists have not been spared during the past ten years of attacks and violations during the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Although Tunisia did away with political power’s censorship of the press after 2011, the Brotherhood wanted to channel the media to serve its own narrow interests.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s Ennahdha movement has engaged in a battle with journalists that has gained prominence after Ennahdha’s ally, the Dignity Coalition, revealed its desire to control the press and the media through a controversial legislative initiative presented by the coalition to revise Decree 116, which contradicts journalists’ demands.
The relationship between Ennahdha and Tunisian media institutions has been tense and protracted since the group came to power after 2011.
The Brotherhood had previously supported a nearly two-month open sit-in by its supporters and a number of Salafis, holding black flags in front of the Tunisian Television Corporation in April 2012, which amounted to a skirmish between protesters and journalists when stones were thrown at them.
The sit-in aimed to bring the media to its knees and control, and to sell the Tunisian radio and television institutions.
In April 2012, Ennahdha tried to get its hands on the official Tunisian news agency, and its staff staged a general strike if the government did not retract the appointment of a close Ennahdha confidant as president and the foundation’s director general, Kamal Ben Younes.
In 2013, the Tunisian Journalists Syndicate said attacks on journalists were carried out by police, pro-government protesters led by Ennahdha and radical religious groups.
World Press Freedom Day
On the sidelines of the celebration of World Press Freedom Day, Tuesday, the National Union of Tunisian Journalists published a photo on its official Facebook page with the slogan “Press freedom faces imminent danger”.
The International network “Reporters Without Borders” revealed that Tunisia is ranked 94th in the World Press Freedom Index.
Tunisian political analyst Sahabi Siddiq said Tunisia has lived through violations of press freedom over the past decade by the Brotherhood’s Ennahdha party and the pro-Brotherhood Dignity Coalition.
He said that before resorting to the judiciary, the Brotherhood tried to recruit journalists in Tunisia, taking advantage of the concern of international human rights organizations about the targeting of press freedom in Tunisia.
He added that freedom of the press in Tunisia has become a political bet more than ever, as the Brotherhood’s representatives in the dissolved parliament no longer hesitate to attack journalists and media professionals who publicly criticize their actions.
Amira Mohammed, vice president of the Tunisian Journalists Syndicate, said that after the 2019 elections and the advent of the Brotherhood-era government of Hichem Mechichi, the profession went for the worse.
The parliament has been used for public trials of journalists, their syndicate and the Independent High Commission for Audiovisual Media, and the freedom of press work in the parliament has been curtailed.
She continued: “Not content with this, the dignity Coalition, Ennahdha and Heart of Tunisia attempted to pass a bill to amend Decree 116 in order to control the media”.
Tunisian President Kais Saied has repeatedly said that he “does not intend to establish a dictatorial regime, nor to undermine rights and freedoms”, but rather to “reform the situation after he realized that there is an imminent threat to the Tunisian state”.
