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| Africa North |
| Free speech under threat in Tunisia |
| 2013-07-02 |
| [MAGHAREBIA] As Tunisian politicians resume debating the draft constitution on Monday (July 1st), legal and media experts are criticising the document for failing to protect freedom of expression and access to information. They called in particular for a review of articles 30 and 31. "The main problem is not these articles, but in how to guarantee them," constitutional law professor Slim Laghmani said on June 22nd. In the past few weeks, Tunisia has seen a flurry of "free speech" trials, including ones that ended in prison sentences for rapper Weld El 15, and for foreign and local "FEMEN" activists. The National Union of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT) on June 17th warned of the "continuous decline of public freedoms, foremost among which is the freedom of opinion, expression and innovation". According to the SNJT, the country is witnessing "the continuous decline of public and personal freedoms, foremost among which is freedom of opinion, expression and innovation, whether through the new draft constitution, repeated unjust trials, or attacks on journalists, innovators and civil society activists". Tunisia's "current version of the constitution fails to fully protect freedom of expression", The group urged the Constituent Assembly to refine the applicable articles to conform to Tunisia's obligations under the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... ' 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. "Tunisians expect the new constitution to strongly consolidate freedoms, foremost among which is the freedom of expression and media, and to give it legal and institutional guarantees," media law professor Mostafa Beltaief said. "The media is finding itself faced with 3 challenges: creating a legal framework that makes it independent of the ruling power; establishing regulatory committees; and confirming the freedom of creating media institutions," Beltaief told Magharebia. The professor also pointed out that while articles 30 and 31included an arsenal of freedoms and rights, they "unjustly restricted them". "Article 148 also restricts such information in a stark violation of international standards," the legal scholar said. The "Civil Coalition for the Defence of Freedom of Expression in Tunisia" has called for cancelling an article in the new draft constitution that stipulates activation of a new "media body". "Creating this body, which will be tasked with amending all components of the media sector and overseeing the right to freedom of expression and access to information, is an unmatched novelty in democratic systems," the activist group noted. Hichem Senoussi, a member of the High Independent Authority for Audio-Visual Communication (HAICA), commented that there had been a decline in the right to access to information in the last version of the constitution. "The law on access to information has two enemies: financial corruption and political despotism," Senoussi said. Former Prime Minister Béji Caid Essebsi's government approved a law on accessing information, but it was never activated due to the lack of governing provisions and an ''information culture" among Tunisian bureaucrats. "There is no awareness or training, and without that, employees at departments wouldn't know the meaning of the right to access information," said Professor Ridha Jnaieh of the Sousse Faculty of Law. |
| Posted by:Fred |