Tunisia
Authorities impede press conferences on human rightsPosted Apr 9 2010
Tunisian officials hindered journalists from attending two press conferences last week where reports were to be made public by Human Rights Watch and the local group International Association to Support Political Prisoners.
“Not a single journalist” was able to appear at the Human Rights Watch event March 24, according to Amnesty International, where the report presented was “A Larger Prison: Repression of Former Political Prisoners in Tunisia.” IPI reported that Tunisia Minister of Communications Oussama Romdhani “gave no legal basis” for the decision to ban the conference, stating only that government authorities said the report was “one-sided and biased.”
In light of the ban, hotels designated for the conference withdrew the space they had provided, and the event was moved to a law firm office in Tunis. Even then, journalists were physically kept out of the premises. According to IPI, Human Rights Watch plans to post video of the conference on YouTube to spread the findings of the report.
“This reflects the shrinking space for public expression in Tunisia,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director for Human Rights Watch. “…We are not going to give up our work because the government does not approve.”
Earlier in the week, CPJ reported that journalists and human rights activists had been blocked from the presentation of the local report “Citizens Under Siege: Administrative Control in Tunisia.”
Human Rights Watch and other organizations have held previous press conferences in Tunisia without any trouble.
“Tunisia proves itself with every ban, every obstruction of the independent media, to be unable to abide by international standards for freedom of expression,” said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, coordinator for CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program.