Tunisian journalists protested Thursday against “repressive” anti-terror laws they say are being used to intimidate the media after a broadcaster was jailed for five years earlier this week.
The rally follows a court’s use of anti-terror laws on Tuesday to increase to five years the prison sentence handed down to Khalima Guesmi, a journalist at the Mosaique FM radio station, after he appealed a one-year sentence handed down in November.
Guesmi was found guilty of intentionally disclosing “information relating to wiretapping, infiltration, audio-visual surveillance or data collection,” his lawyer said after the latest ruling.
Several local and international rights groups and unions warned on Tuesday “of the seriousness of the current authorities’ repressive direction” and called on activists and civil society “to mobilize to defend freedoms and human rights”.
These groups have criticized the decline of civil liberties in Tunisia since President Kais Saied launched a sweeping seizure of power on July 25, 2021.