{"id":9358,"date":"2024-05-23T12:02:21","date_gmt":"2024-05-23T12:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=9358"},"modified":"2024-05-23T12:02:21","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T12:02:21","slug":"tunisia-sentences-two-journalists-to-one-year-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=9358","title":{"rendered":"Tunisia sentences two journalists to one year in prison"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>1 Minute, 52 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>

A Tunisian court on Wednesday sentenced two journalists to one year in prison on charges of publishing false news that harms public security, a judicial official said, amid growing fears of a crackdown targeting all critical voices.<\/p>\n

Mourad Zghidi and Borhan Bsaiss, both journalists with IFM radio,\u00a0were detained<\/a>\u00a0this month over political comments made on the radio.<\/p>\n

Tunisia has now imprisoned a total of six journalists, including Zghidi and Bsaiss, while dozens of others face judicial prosecution, according to the journalists syndicate, which is the country\u2019s main union for journalists.<\/p>\n

In May, police arrested 10 people, including journalists,\u00a0lawyers<\/a>\u00a0and officials of\u00a0civil society<\/a>\u00a0groups, in what Amnesty International called a deep crackdown targeting activists and journalists. Human Rights Watch has called on Tunisia to respect free speech and civil liberties.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe judge decided to imprison them for a year following social media posts and radio comments that harm public security,\u201d said Mohamed Zitouna, the Tunis court spokesperson.<\/p>\n

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Lawyers for Bsaiss and Zghidi were not immediately available for comment.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

During his trial session, Bsaiss said: \u201cI am a program presenter who presents all issues, and what I did was journalistic work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zghidi also defended himself during the session.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did not make a mistake. \u2026.My work requires analyzing the political and economic situation\u2026and I bear my responsibility,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Tunisian journalists gathered near the court on Wednesday, demanding an end to ongoing restrictions against journalists.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cTunisia has become an open prison for journalists,\u201d Zied Dabbar, the head of Journalists Syndicate, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThreats and restrictions facing journalists in Tunisia are unprecedented. We will move to escalation,\u201d he added without giving details.<\/p>\n

Since Tunisia\u2019s 2011 revolution, the country has been considered one of the more open media environments in the Arab world.<\/p>\n

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But politicians, journalists and unions say that freedom of the press faces a serious threat under the rule of President Kais Saied who came to power following free elections in 2019.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Two years later he shut down the elected parliament and moved to rule by decree. He also assumed authority over the judiciary, a step that the opposition called a coup.<\/p>\n

Saied rejects accusations of authoritarian rule and says that his steps aim to end years of chaos and corruption.<\/p>

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A Tunisian court on Wednesday sentenced two journalists to one year in prison on charges of publishing false news that harms public security, a judicial official said, amid growing fears… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}