11 May 2005
SERIOUS HUMAN RIGHTS CONCERNS REMAIN, SAY WATCHDOGS
The Tunisian government is failing to take effective action to stop human rights abuses in the country, putting its status as host of the November 2005 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in question, says the Tunisia Monitoring Group (TMG), a coalition of 13 IFEX members that monitors free expression violations in the North African country.
Four members of the TMG - Index on Censorship, the International Publishers' Association, the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters and the World Press Freedom Committee - visited Tunis from 5 to 8 May to present the Arabic edition of the TMG's report on freedom of expression to Tunisian organisations.
"Tunisia: Freedom of Expression under Siege" expresses grave concern about human rights violations in the country, including the use of torture by security services, imprisonment of individuals who express their opinions, restrictions on freedom of association, police surveillance of e-mails and the blocking of news and information websites.
While welcoming the opening of a constructive dialogue with the government to support the establishment of lasting freedom of expression in Tunisia before and after the WSIS, the TMG says the government has failed to act on the report's recommendations.
"Unless the Tunisian government makes substantive progress in granting free expression rights at home, questions will continue to be asked worldwide whether Tunis is the appropriate venue for the WSIS, given the importance of free expression to WSIS objectives," the group says.
Senior Tunisian officials claim that a young and evolving democracy such as theirs needs time to introduce a full range of human rights.
In recent weeks, independent journalists and Internet users have been harassed and jailed for criticising the government on its human rights record. The President of the Tunisian Journalists' Syndicate (SJT), Lotfi Hajji, has been interrogated by authorities several times because of an SJT report that expresses concern about the state of press freedom in the country, reports the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).
Authorities told Hajji that SJT should not be operating because it was an "illegal organisation," even though Tunisian Law does not require new trade unions to register with the government.
Mohammed Abbou, a respected lawyer, was sentenced to more than three years in prison on 28 April, in part because of an August 2004 article he wrote for a website (TunisNews.net) which compared US torture in Iraq to the treatment of prisoners in Tunisian jails, reports Index on Censorship.
Abbou had also posted an article on the same website in February 2005 which criticised Tunisian President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali for inviting Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon to Tunis for the WSIS summit.
TMG members are working on joint actions to alert the international community about the Hajji and Abbou cases.
To read the TMG's report, visit: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/64665/
Visit these links:
- Updates on the TMG: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/50685/
- International PEN Appeal for Mohammed Abbou: http://tinyurl.com/c8kp8
- Coverage by Index on Censorship:
http://tinyurl.com/8gkhc
- Human Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/04/29/tunisi10563.htm
- Tunisian Judiciary Muzzled: http://tinyurl.com/cn76p
- WSIS: http://www.itu.int/wsis
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