About IFEX:

News by region:

IFEX Campaigns and Advocacy:

IFEX Email Products:

Opportunities and assistance:

TMG CALLS FOR RELEASE OF JAILED JOURNALISTS, DISSIDENTS

The IFEX Tunisia Monitoring Group (TMG) has called on Tunisia's president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, to order the release of all prisoners held for free expression "crimes" in advance of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), which opens on Wednesday in Tunis.

The group says Tunisia continues to crack down on dissidents, human rights defenders and journalists who criticise the government. In the latest development, authorities have cut off the telephone lines and blocked the email accounts of eight prominent dissidents who have been waging a hunger strike for the past 17 days to protest human rights violations.

"This action is inhumane and a provocation," says the TMG. "It sends a message that the authorities are not ready to respect the fundamental aim of the Summit, which is to build an inclusive, pluralist and free
communications environment for the information age."
The eight dissidents, who include Lotfi Hajji, the head of the Tunisian Journalists Union (SJT), and legal advocate Mokhtar Yahyaoui, began their hunger strike on 18 October to protest the continued imprisonment of prisoners of conscience and the government's lack of respect for freedom of expression and association. The TMG says the hunger strikers are feeling weak and have low blood pressure.

TMG is also calling for the immediate release of journalist Hamadi Jebali, who has been jailed since 1991, and lawyer Mohammed Abbou, among others. On 6 November, Jebali went on hunger strike - his third this year - to protest his prison conditions.

Prior to his imprisonment, Jebali was the publisher of the weekly "Al Fajr", a newspaper owned by the banned Islamist party An Nahda, notes Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF). He was convicted of libel for publishing an opinion piece by a lawyer, Mohammed Nouri, which called for an end to military tribunals.

Visit:
- TMG: http://campaigns.ifex.org/tmg/
- RSF Visits Hunger Strikers: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=15551
- International Press Institute:
http://www.freemedia.at/Protests2005/pr_Tunisia14.11.05.htm
- Police Ban NGO Meeting: http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/11/14/tunisi12019.htm
- Libération Reporter Stabbed, Beaten in Tunis: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/70455/
- Tunisia Under Fire over UN Summit: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4429610.stm
- Amnesty International:
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE300192005
- Human Rights First: http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/campaign/Abbou2?
-