TUNIS, May 15 (Reuters) – A Tunisian judge on Wednesday ordered the detention of two renowned journalists pending trial, their families and lawyers said, reinforcing fears of a tightening political repression against dissidents and freedom of expression.
Journalists Mourad Zghidi and Borhen Bsaiss, from IFM radio, were arrested on Saturday for making political remarks on the air, their lawyers said.
According to Mohamed Zaitouna, spokesperson for the public prosecutor’s office, the two journalists are suspected of having made personal data public and disseminating false information for defamatory purposes.
They will remain in detention until their trial, which is expected to take place at the end of the month.
These arrests bring the number of journalists imprisoned in Tunisia to five.
Since the 2011 revolution, the country has been considered one of the freest in the Arab world for the media.
However, politicians, journalists and unions say press freedom is increasingly under threat since President Kais Saied came to power in a free election in 2019.
Two years later, Kais Saied assumed additional powers by closing the elected Parliament and deciding to rule by decree, then asserting his authority over the judiciary, which the opposition describes as a coup d’état.
On Sunday, hundreds of people demonstrated in the capital Tunis to demand the release of imprisoned journalists and opponents, and to demand a date for a fair presidential election.
The European Union expressed concern on Tuesday about the wave of imprisonments of civil society figures, journalists and political activists, and demanded clarification from Tunisia.
(Report by the Tunisian editorial team, French version Alban Kacher, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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