Censorship in Tunisia

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Location of Tunisia on the North African Mediterranean coast

As censorship in Tunisia , the experiment is called, the exchange of information with unwanted content in Tunisia to prevent or restrict distribution and content of the information exchange, especially through the mass media , to control. In the history of Tunisia, measures to control information have taken place since the existence of the public media in the 19th century, whereby the measures were based on different interests and different actors depending on the historical background. While attempts were made in the first half of the 20th century at the time of the French protectorate to suppress , above all, aspirations for independence , the censorship measures after the establishment of the Tunisian Republic were mainly directed against criticism of the government and political and social grievances as well as the activities of opposition groups and unions . The media landscape that is subject to censorship also changed steadily, until the middle of the 20th century, mainly print media, predominantly newspapers, were affected by censorship. After that, radio media developed, and artistic works such as theatrical performances also attracted attention. After all, the Internet and the transition to the information age presented a new challenge for the censors.

The censorship efforts under the authoritarian ruling President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali took on particular proportions between 1989 and 2011, during whose term of office extensive instruments and structures were created to control almost the entire area of ​​public communication. In international assessments of freedom of expression and freedom of the press , Tunisia took lower places during this period. Nevertheless, censorship rarely played a role in the public perception of the country, and the international community was reluctant to condemn it.

After the Tunisian Revolution , the situation improved significantly from the beginning of 2011. Instruments and laws to enable censorship have mostly been abolished, but in isolated cases the informal structures of the old government still hinder freedom of expression and freedom of the press. Regular attacks on journalists are also documented. With the growing influence of Islamist currents and the Ennahda party , renewed restrictions are feared and observed.

Situation before the independence of Tunisia

The first media that were able to achieve greater reach in Tunisia were newspapers printed abroad and primarily aimed at Italian immigrants at the beginning of the 19th century. In 1838 the first newspaper printed in Tunisia, Il Giornale di Tunisi e di Carthagine, was created . It was not until 1860 that a newspaper based on the Arab model was founded with ar-Râid at-tûnisî , which was primarily aimed at the local population. It also served to announce new regulations of the ruling Beys . The printing of private publications was forbidden, but since there was a need for their own media and the means for it, especially in the middle classes , these were produced and imported abroad .

After the occupation of Tunisia by France in 1881, the organs of the established protectorate administration had a difficult time, and it was not until 1884 that a French gazette was published . In the same year, the general ban on the private press was lifted, but a large deposit had to be paid to distribute a publication . Many smaller newspaper projects were quickly resumed or could not even overcome this hurdle. As a result, larger papers were developed that reflected the position of the Protectorate Government and avoided critical topics. Over time, a bourgeois press developed again. The first independent Tunisian mass media emerged, albeit with limited reach in certain social classes.

A serious encroachment on the freedom of the press followed in 1904, when a French decree extended the rights and possibilities for French newspapers, but severely restricted the freedoms of the Arab and private newspapers until they could be banned. This shows the conflict between the “French colonial press” and the Tunisian efforts to establish their own media. National aspirations and ideas of independence should be nipped in the bud with this measure. Another setback was the First World War , in which all Arabic-language magazines were banned and the French press was also subject to severe restrictions. Important editors were imprisoned or went into exile . From 1920, the range of newspapers was relaxed and the range of newspapers revitalized, but the conflict between French interests and Tunisian aspirations for independence persisted. The influence of the local press was curbed with bans and political persecution.

During the Second World War , the Tunisian media landscape was largely paralyzed. In November 1942, German and Italian troops occupied the country and only a few newspapers approved by the occupation could appear. The Allied campaign in Tunisia followed after just a few months and the Axis powers were pushed back from Tunisia. It was not until 1947 that the situation returned to normal with the lifting of the state of emergency and easing of the media. Even if the Dépêche Tunisienne, which has existed as a colonial newspaper since 1887, was still the publication with the highest circulation with 20,000 copies per issue, the Tunisian struggle for independence has now finally developed into a driving force in the Tunisian media. The years up to 1956, the year of independence, were still marked by harsh measures against the national press, but despite great difficulties, large parts of the population could be reached with the idea of ​​an independent Tunisia.

Situation after independence: censorship under Habib Bourguiba

Habib Bourguiba , the first President of Tunisia between 1957 and 1987

As early as 1920, with the rise of Tunisian nationalism, the Destur party was founded, which advocated an independent Tunisia. Later, the modernist and secular- oriented wing split off as a Neo-Destur . At the time of the declaration of independence, there were two large, if not the most widely circulated, newspapers, most of which took the party's standpoint. Between 1955 and 1958 there was another newspaper from their environment that was important beyond Tunisia: the weekly newspaper L'Action provided a large range of news and critical reports. Even before Habib Bourguiba , founder and main actor of Neo-Destur, became the first President of the Republic of Tunisia in 1959, he fell out with the editors, withdrew their trust and thus forced the newspaper to cease. During this time of upheaval, other political opponents of Bourguiba and the opposition media were also persecuted, for example the Islamist newspaper As-Sabah , then one of the five largest newspapers in the country, was banned for a few months. Bourguiba accused her of taking sides with his inner-party opponent Salah Ben Youssef.

With independence, new laws emerged, for example the Tunisian constitution guaranteed freedom of the press and freedom of expression since 1956 . However, a press law also brought restrictions with it, which manifested themselves in the form of a ban on the publication of false information and the regulation of violations of public order. For the media, criticism of the president or the government could end in hiring. The coexistence of the state and “independent” private media was thus tarnished by guidelines and political persecution. During Bourguiba's term in office, the private print media took a largely passive stance; criticism only concerned issues that applied to the whole of Africa or the Arab world . During times of domestic political unrest, there were isolated attempts from the end of the 1970s to establish oppositional or critical reporting, which, however, quickly failed.

Since independence, radio has developed in Tunisia , which was of particular importance due to the initially widespread illiteracy , especially in the simpler sections of the population in rural regions. From the time of the French protectorate, the government had a modern broadcasting company, which now broadcast a state program in French and Arabic. Bourguiba was now able to dominate public opinion with weekly radio addresses with which he could reach almost all social classes. A law introduced in 1957 guaranteed the state monopoly for radio stations and prevented any competition.

Tunisia's independence was also followed by cultural modernization, which was expressed, among other things, in the literary and artistic works of this time. Tunisian literature had long produced critical works that dealt, among other things, with the oppression of humans. After the founding of the state, the political and social problems of the new Tunisia were also addressed. On the still young theater stages , the plays increasingly emancipated themselves from the European models that came into the country with the French occupation and tried to establish a political dimension here too. From a generation of young theater professionals, well educated abroad with the help of government grants , highly politicized theater groups emerged in several inner-Tunisian cities. Although these only reached a small audience and were rejected or even despised by a large part of the population, the Ministry of Cultural Affairs created a commission “to assess the quality” of the pieces. She repeatedly censored works in which they were shortened, defused or banned entirely. Structures were also in place at the local level to check the suitability of a play for the region. For the theater professionals, the censorship sometimes meant severe financial losses.

The government influenced the cultural sector mainly through targeted funding in non-political areas. The Tunisian film , which began to develop from the 1960s onwards , received significant support from the government, which saw this medium as an opportunity to have a say in public opinion in Tunisia and in advertising abroad. Many film directors were dependent on the extensive funding and assistance and had to maintain a non-political profile. The Tunisian film therefore never developed the critical potential that could be found on the theater stage, for example. The landscape of the cultural festivals was also dominated by the large state offers.

Although numerous restrictive instruments of censorship were established under Bourguiba, also at the legal and institutional level, all in all the restrictions on freedom of the press and freedom of expression and the scope of the measures are not comparable with those of his successor.

Tunisia from 1987: Situation under Ben Ali

Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali , authoritarian president of Tunisia between 1987 and 2011

On November 7, 1987, Bourguiba was deposed due to domestic political crises and because of his state of health and Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali became the new President of Tunisia. During his 23-year term in office, there was an “expansion of complete state control to all levels of society”. The structures and instruments of censorship were continuously expanded until his fall during the Tunisian Revolution in 2011. The government controlled almost the entire media landscape, even if a few independent media were tolerated in order to simulate a democratic claim. The work of these media was largely hindered and was only noticeable to a limited extent. Authorized private media were predominantly loyal to the government or heavily influenced by the state. Even the liberalization of broadcasting from 2003 onwards did not improve the situation; announced reforms with regard to freedom of the press were either not implemented or had no effect.

Critical journalists were exposed to severe repression , there were job losses, arrests and also mistreatment. In this “climate of fear” the media largely refrained from attempting to address political or social problems or criticizing the government through self-censorship . Most of the repression and censorship measures came from the Ministry of Information, which was directly subordinate to the Ministry of the Interior, and there were also legal legitimacy laws . The press law, for example, allowed long-term prison sentences for defamation of members of the authorities or government and a six-month sentence for defamation of private individuals. Although the Tunisian government officially claimed that no journalist has been arrested for his work since 1987, several cases of prison sentences, some of them long, are documented.

Since Tunisia's independence, the censorship efforts have not been compatible with the Tunisian constitution, which, among other things, guaranteed freedom of expression and freedom of the press. They also contradicted numerous international human rights conventions that Tunisia has signed. The political reality and strong censorship in Tunisia contradicted the external perception of the situation. The situation was rarely discussed internationally and comparatively seldom criticized and never posed a threat to the good image of the country, especially in the field of tourism. A broader perception was seldom made. The hosting of the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis in 2005 led to criticism of the Ben Ali's approach. Tunisian activists tried unsuccessfully to use the attention to demand improvements. The summit was unable to help improve the situation of freedom of expression and freedom of the press in Tunisia and to prevent further tightening of censorship.

The Tunisian government has repeatedly asserted that it would guarantee freedom of expression and freedom of the press in Tunisia and tried to maintain a reputation that was friendly to human rights. One reason for the little international attention paid to the situation was that the external perception of Tunisia was influenced by the censorship measures. In 1990, the agency for external communications was set up under the Prime Ministry . Since then, this agency has monitored all inquiries from foreign journalists, regardless of whether they were political matters. The country's image campaigns abroad and advertising measures for tourism were also developed by this authority. The government spoofed the Internet and set up a website that was deceptively similar to the sites of the human rights organization Amnesty International . Here, the supposed achievements and progress made in the human rights situation in Tunisia were presented and the country was described as “an example of the realization of human rights”.

In particular, the transition to the information age became a new challenge for the censorship efforts under Ben Ali. With the advent of the Internet , deep Internet censorship was also established. Nevertheless, the Internet is often cited as a main reason for the success of the Tunisian Revolution and thus for the overthrow of Ben Ali and his censorship apparatus.

Print media

Assessment of press freedom worldwide in 2009 by Reporters Without Borders

Like all media sectors, newspapers , magazines and books in Tunisia were subject to strict censorship. The selection and content of the newspapers in Tunisia under Ben Ali are described as one-sided, similar and propagandistic . In order to distribute a pamphlet, a permit was required, which could simply be refused. Even in the case of non-political print products, approval was in some cases delayed or refused. In 2010, Tunisia was ranked 164th in the list of press freedom of the organization Reporters Without Borders and thus among the last 15 countries in the world.

The daily newspapers with the highest circulation in 2005 were the state-run French-language La Presse with 55,000 copies daily and the state-run Arabic-language daily newspaper As-Sahafa . In addition, about a dozen other newspapers were licensed under Ben Ali, which are described as "loyal to the government". For this purpose, the monthly magazine Attariq aljadid of the Ettajdid movement and the weekly Al-Maoukif of the Democratic Progressive Party existed from the environment of the few permitted parties . With print runs of 3,000 and 5,000 copies, they could only achieve a fraction of the reach of the major media. They are considered independent, but in view of the generally restrictive framework they were far from being able to report freely. The Tunisian government liked to refer to the numerous private media outlets and the tolerance against an alleged diversity of opinion and also claimed to support opposition newspapers.

“The government would like to shut us down - but on the other hand, it uses us as a fig leaf for a free press landscape in Tunisia. Any action against us would damage our international reputation. "

- Rashid Kashana , editor-in-chief of Al-Maoukif

Censorship in the sense of a ban on the distribution of printed matter primarily affected foreign newspapers. While the Tunisian media were not printed in case of doubt, the appearance of European and Arab newspapers in particular could only be prevented by import and distribution bans. Numerous publications were banned, daily newspapers from France such as Le Monde or Liberation were regularly withheld or delivered late. The Ministry of Information was legally empowered to prohibit the distribution of foreign newspapers without justification and without the possibility of objection.

In May 2005, Ben Ali promised reforms to loosen the restrictions, including the abolition of the licensing requirement for publications. Smaller measures were implemented, including the abolition of the dépôt légal , the obligation of every newspaper to deposit a copy with the Ministry of the Interior after printing. Other reforms have been heavily disguised, no great changes have been observed or a loss of government control. The President's promises were therefore not kept.

In May 2004, the independent journalistic union Syndicat des Journalistes Tunisiens (SJT) was founded with the participation of well-known people who were more difficult to prosecute because of their international attention . This step was intended to counterbalance the existing government-loyal trade union Association des Journalistes Tunisiens , which had lost its independence at the latest in the Ben Ali era. A year after it was founded, the group published a report on the state of the media in Tunisia, which highlighted the existing situation and ascribed a great deal of insignificance to real journalism in Tunisia. In addition, leverage such as instructions and guidelines for private media were described and cases were listed in which the media violated the government's opinion and were sanctioned.

Critical journalists were threatened with restrictions in all areas of life, initially with the loss of their press pass or their job. Contrary to the government's statement that journalists were never imprisoned under Ben Ali, there are some convictions, some of them lasting several years, mainly for slander . There were also smear campaigns and attacks, such as those against the journalist Sihem Bensedrine , who was also arrested and accused the government of mistreatment. With the participation of private media, she was publicly defamed and thus made implausible. In May 2000, shortly after the publication of a critical report in the French daily Le Monde , the journalist Riadh Ben Fadhel was shot and injured by strangers. Another case is the years of persecution of Taoufik Ben Brik , who counted Ben Ali as one of the harshest critics and often wrote for foreign newspapers. He was arrested and attacked several times, and family members were also subjected to repression. After being repeatedly prevented from leaving the country and not getting his passport back, he went on a hunger strike for weeks in 2000 . In the early 1990s he was fired from his position as editor of a newspaper and was banned from publishing in Tunisia. Ben Brik's hunger strike also meant the end of the Aloès publishing house , on whose premises he carried out his action. The publishing house had only been founded a year earlier by European and Tunisian intellectuals , including critical journalists such as Sihem Bensedrine.

Books also required approval and were subject to restrictive censorship. Many primarily political works, but also books on Tunisian history, sexuality , women's rights and Islamism were forbidden and could not be imported or distributed. However, there was no official list of the relevant publications; orders from abroad were checked on a case-by-case basis. The rejection of the approval was not justified, and the approval procedure for books that were ultimately approved was partially delayed. The situation for films and electronic media such as CDs was similar. Prohibited media were partly smuggled in from abroad.

Broadcast media

For a long time, the landscape of the broadcast media in Tunisia was shaped solely by state broadcasters. The programs TV7 and Canal 21 could be received on television , and there are several state radio stations across the country . In 2003 the Tunisian government opened the media landscape to private broadcasters and announced this step as “ liberalization ” with regard to freedom of the press and freedom of expression . The establishment of an independent radio reporting is largely regarded as a failure, as the Ministry of the Interior had to approve a private broadcasting license . Many of the applications were not processed, and the opposition weekly Al-Maoukif also tried to obtain a license for a radio and television program. In addition, the government had access to similar means of pressure as in the area of ​​print media. All in all, even after the reforms, the audiovisual media were almost completely under state control.

In November 2003, the radio station Mosaïque FM became the first private broadcaster to go on air. According to his own statements, he was close to the government, but also claimed to allow free expression of opinion and to address topics such as sexuality and unemployment that had not been discussed in Tunisia . He committed himself to the implementation of numerous conditions to restrict political reporting, in addition, high station posts were filled in consultation with the government. In the next few years, other private radio stations were set up under similar conditions, including the station ZitounaFM in the direct vicinity of the president. An exception was Radio Kalima , which never received a broadcast license and has been available as an internet radio station since 2008. The broadcast operation was only possible from the underground, closely followed. After the station could also be received via a satellite frequency at the end of January 2009, the radio was closed. A journalist was arrested. Radio Kalima from France was able to continue to exist as an Internet radio. Individual journalists continued to try to report independently from Tunisia.

In February 2005 the television station Hannibal TV went on air, which has meanwhile become the market leader in Tunisia. However, the station only offers entertainment and no news programs. A similar format went on air in March 2007 with Nessma TV .

Foreign TV channels that can be received via satellite can also be received in Tunisia, but the Internet offers of channels such as Al Jazeera and al-Arabiya were blocked.

Internet censorship

Access to the Internet worldwide in 2008, according to Reporters Without Borders , Tunisia is listed among the few countries with censored Internet access
  • Censored
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  • Partly censored
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  • Supervised
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  • Free access
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    Ben Ali called the Internet an important tool for the development of Tunisia early on and referred to its benefits for the economy, but also to its importance for society, freedom and justice. Private providers have been supplying Tunisia with the Internet since 1997 , and the government has invested in a modern infrastructure . From around 2005 the number of users rose sharply and in 2009 it was a comparatively high figure of around 3.5 million people, more than a third of the total population of Tunisia.

    The Tunisian telecommunications network is very centralized and therefore easy to control. There is only one main backbone line ( AS 2609) for the entire country . In 1996, before the private introduction of the Internet, the Tunisian Internet agency Agence tunisienne d'Internet (ATI) was founded and has since controlled all Internet traffic and DNS services from a central point. All private providers obtain their capacities from this authority.

    Together with the agency, the government set up extensive internet censorship, which was primarily directed against opposition political sites, websites on human rights issues, instructions on how to bypass internet bans, as well as pornography and revealing depictions. Blocked content has existed since the spread of the Internet, but with the advent of Web 2.0, Internet censorship was increased in Tunisia from around 2007. Cases have been known since 2001 of online activists or people who circumvented the lockdowns being jailed.

    Technically, the censorship measures worked, in which requests to certain URLs , IP addresses and hosts were intercepted and filtered out at the proxy interface of the Internet agency ATI. When calling up such a page, the error code 404 Not Found appeared , as it also appears on pages that actually do not exist. In the Tunisian Internet community, these error messages were mocked as "Ammar 404". It is likely that the Smartfilter software was used, which can automatically prevent access to certain categories of pages. There were also massive hacker attacks on websites and blogs again and again , in which, however, government involvement can only be assumed.

    In addition to blocking sites with Islamist , pornographic and revealing content, political sites and news portals such as those of the Arab channels Al Jazeera and al-Arabiya were increasingly blocked. From 2007, the video portals YouTube and Dailymotion were no longer accessible in Tunisia . New blogs were also filtered out, and it was sufficient to mention events that were kept secret by the authorized media. In the wake of the 2008 riots in Gafsa , there was another wave of lockdowns, especially against sites reporting on activities and disputes in the region. In August 2008 there were attempts to block Facebook . In April 2010 there was a renewed expansion of the measures, to which Flickr and sites of the legal opposition fell victim. Despite the extensive censorship, the government maintained at all times that only pages with terrorist and pornographic content were inaccessible.

    As of 2008, it was suspected that the government was using the deep packet inspection process to monitor e-mail accounts and gain access to passwords. The encrypted HTTPS protocol was often blocked to make it easy to attack. There were also targeted phishing attacks to gain access to e-mail inboxes or to take over Facebook and blog profiles.

    Many people in Tunisia use public internet cafés , so-called publinets , which were encouraged to prevent undesired user activities and to report suspicious facts. In the cafes it was pointed out openly that visiting blocked sites was forbidden, and in case of doubt the owners could face consequences. The user's connection data was often recorded and linked to the personal information that could be requested prior to use. In 2004, a group of young people arrested in an internet café in Zarzis were sentenced to long prison terms for bypassing internet bans and on suspicion of terrorism. They were arrested after visiting sites classified as Islamist by the government.

    Tightening during the Tunisian Revolution

    Protest banner as a symbol against state censorship with the error message 404

    After the self-immolation of the greengrocer Mohamed Bouazizi in Sidi Bouzid , protests broke out in the region, which later spread to all of Tunisia and led to the revolution in Tunisia . At first, however, news about the events spread slowly and hardly got out of the inland area. Journalists were prevented from traveling to the region and reporting on the protests, but the mass media did not mention what was happening. After a few days, reports on Facebook and Twitter set in , which made it possible to spread the events throughout Tunisia and ultimately beyond. Comments, photos and videos testified to ongoing protests, riots and violence by state security forces.

    With the spread of the news over the Internet, Internet censorship also intensified in the days around the turn of the year 2010/2011. The number of blocked sites rose sharply and initial reports from foreign media were not available in Tunisia. In addition to numerous Facebook pages and groups with several thousand members in some cases, the functionality of the platform itself was also censored in order to prevent the upload of images and videos and to curb the spread of the image material. In addition, there was an increase in government phishing attacks and break-ins in Facebook and e-mail accounts, with access to the encrypted HTTPS protocol being prevented again to enable these attacks. On January 2nd, the Anonymous collective launched hacking attacks on various sides of the Tunisian government to draw attention to the events and to support the protests.

    In early January 2011, several journalists and online activists were arrested in Tunisia, including editors from Radio Kalima and the newspaper Al-Maoukif . The rapper El Général , whose political songs are referred to as the “soundtrack of the revolution”, was imprisoned for a few days. He had to sign a declaration to refrain from writing and performing political texts in the future.

    The expansion of censorship measures in the wake of the revolution could not prevent the protests from becoming known from the interior of the country and ultimately spreading to the whole of Tunisia. The mass of news meant that the Tunisian population could be informed of the events despite censorship. In a televised address on January 13, 2011, Ben Ali promised, among other things, freedom of the press and relaxation of internet censorship, but after ongoing demonstrations and unrest he fled Tunisia the next day.

    Situation after the revolution

    After the president fled, a transitional government was formed, including the blogger Slim Amamou , who was imprisoned during the revolution . It announced that it would lift censorship and restore full freedom of expression and freedom of the press. The unclear situation and the confusion of the censorship structures, which the former government had for a long time, initially made these efforts difficult. The internet blocks could only be lifted after a week. Amamou announced the move on Twitter and said that there were difficulties with the lifting as the Internet services were in the hands of Ben Ali loyal technicians.

    Some websites were still blocked afterwards, which was justified with the legal situation. Especially those with pornographic sites but also the Image board 4chan . A list of all blocked pages should be published, and inaccessible pages were now provided with a notice. It was pointed out in French, Arabic and English that the blocked page contained content that was morally questionable, glorifying violence or inciting hatred, and an email address was also given for complaints.

    After these pages were initially accessible from the beginning of February 2011, the Tunisian court decided at the end of May to block pornographic pages in the interests of youth protection. The Tunisian Internet agency ATI, which used to be significantly involved in Internet censorship, appealed against the judgment and expressed concerns about renewed filtering of Internet pages. However, in August the appellate court upheld the first instance decision. The blocking of four Facebook pages in May 2011, which were censored at the request of the Tunisian military, also caused a stir. The reason given was "damage to the reputation of the armed forces and the spread of unrest".

    There were delays after the revolution, especially in the withdrawal of old legal provisions and prohibitions. Since legal reforms first had to be worked out, legal gray areas emerged, for example in the area of ​​the approval requirement for media. For example, after Ben Ali's escape, the customs authorities announced in January 2011 that a permit was no longer required to import books, films or electronic media, but that the legal repeal did not take place until the beginning of March. Applying for private broadcasting licenses also continued to be difficult. For months after the revolution, Radio Kalima , which was banned and prosecuted under Ben Ali, had not received a broadcast license. Here, too, the suspicion arises that the delays are due to the structures of the old regime, which in some areas can still prevent independent reporting.

    With the growing influence of Islamist currents and the moderate Islamist party Ennahda, which was banned under Ben Ali , renewed restrictions on freedom of expression are feared and observed. The events following the broadcast of the French cartoon Persepolis on Tunisian Nessma TV caused an international sensation in October 2011 . Due to the depiction of God, the film led to numerous protests in Tunisia and threats to employees of the station. The station boss Nabil Karoui had to answer to court from January 2012, he was accused of violating religious values ​​and disturbing public order because of the broadcast of Persepolis. Other journalists have also been threatened by Islamists, Lina Ben Mhenni announced that she had received death threats for criticizing radical Islamist views. In February 2012, Samir Dilou, Ennahda Human Rights Minister, announced that he would support a ban on the gay magazine Gayday , which was founded in March 2011 . In a television program, he described the magazine as crossing the borders of freedom of speech, as it violates the "limits set by religion and tradition". In mid-February 2012, editor Nasreddine Ben Saida and two journalists from the daily Attounissia were temporarily arrested after the paper published a revealing photo of professional soccer player Sami Khedira and his girlfriend. Journalists at the newspaper received death threats from Islamists following the publication. In March, a court sentenced Ben Saida to a fine of 1,000 Tunisian dinars (the equivalent of around 500 euros) for publication  and ruled that all remaining copies of the newspaper issue in question must be destroyed. At the end of March, two men were each sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for posting caricatures on their Facebook profile that showed the prophet Mohammed naked.

    In October 2011 , the organization Reporters Without Borders opened an office in Tunis to monitor the ongoing restrictions on freedom of the press in Tunisia . In an open letter to the Tunisian government on the first anniversary of the revolution, the organization complained that the repression against journalists was growing again and that some structures of the old regime were still in place. The threat to freedom of the press and freedom of expression from Islamist threats was also discussed.

    Reporters Without Borders exposed a number of specific violations of the freedom of the press and freedom of expression and attacks on journalists. In January 2012, two journalists who were accompanying a demonstration by university employees were attacked by security forces. Similar incidents occurred in the previous months, mostly with the participation of plainclothes security forces. In some cases, larger groups of international journalists were also attacked. In another case of a violation of the freedom of the press, the circulation of two French weekly newspapers was hindered because they showed a picture of Muhammad. In Tunisia, the filling of several top posts in state media under the influence of the government in early 2012 also caused displeasure.

    All in all, the situation has improved significantly despite the restrictions and isolated attacks. The instruments of state censorship have largely been abolished, but isolated structures of the old government under Ben Ali are still recognizable. Legal reforms contributed to greater legal protection of freedom of expression and freedom of the press. Independent reporting without government influence is largely possible and is currently being developed.

    Web links

    Individual evidence

    1. ↑ a b Konrad Schliephake: Tunisia . K. Thienemanns Verlag, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-522-64140-X , p. 368 ff .
    2. ↑ a b c Konrad Schliephake: Tunisia . K. Thienemanns Verlag, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-522-64140-X , p. 371 ff .
    3. ↑ a b Hansjörg Koch: Tunisia . Kurt Schroeder Verlag, Bonn 1959, p. 85 .
    4. ↑ a b Hansjörg Koch: Tunisia . Kurt Schroeder Verlag, Bonn 1959, p. 86 .
    5. ↑ a b c d Reporters Without Borders : "You have no rights here, but welcome to Tunisia!" ( Memento of February 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 872 kB). Report on the situation of freedom of the press and freedom of expression in Tunisia. Paris 2005, p. 5.
    6. ^ Konrad Schliephake: Tunisia . K. Thienemanns Verlag, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-522-64140-X , p. 276 ff .
    7. ↑ a b Konrad Schliephake: Tunisia . K. Thienemanns Verlag, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-522-64140-X , p. 291 ff .
    8. ↑ Joan Pisney: Tunisian censorship. In: Index on Censorship 2/1979. 8th year, 2nd edition. P. 54 f.
    9. ^ Florence Martin: Cinema and State in Tunisia . In: Josef Gugler (Ed.): Film in the Middle East and North Africa: Creative Dissidence . University of Texas Press, Austin 2011, ISBN 978-0-292-72327-6 , pp. 271 ff .
    10. ↑ a b Reporters Without Borders : "You have no rights here, but welcome to Tunisia!" ( Memento of February 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 872 kB). Report on the situation of freedom of the press and freedom of expression in Tunisia. Paris 2005, p. 4.
    11. ^ A b Henner Kirchner: Local censorship and global public. Legitimation in the Age of Global Communication: The Case Study Tunisia . In: Angelika Hartmann (ed.): History and memory in Islam . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 978-3-525-35574-9 , pp. 273 . , Digitized BSB Munich.
    12. ↑ a b c Beat Stauffer: Censorship and muzzles for media professionals. In: OnlineReports.ch. August 30, 2005. Retrieved January 24, 2012 .
    13. ↑ a b c d e Reporters Without Borders : The Downside of Paradise. 2005, archived from the original on February 11, 2013 ; Retrieved January 24, 2012 .
    14. ^ Text of the Constitution of Tunisia between 1956 and 2011 - Article 8.
    15. ↑ a b c Reporters Without Borders : "You have no rights here, but welcome to Tunisia!" ( Memento of February 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 872 kB). Report on the situation of freedom of the press and freedom of expression in Tunisia. Paris 2005, p. 3.
    16. ↑ a b c d e f g Sami Ben Gharbia: Silencing online speech in Tunisia. In: Global Voices Online . August 20, 2008, accessed January 24, 2012 .
    17. ↑ Kamel Labidi: Censorship in Arab countries . In: Theo JD Bothma (Ed.): Access to libraries and information: Towards a fairer world (=  IFLA / FAIFE World Report Series ). Vol. VII. Pretoria 2007, ISBN 978-0-620-41005-2 , pp. 27 .
    18. ^ Henner Kirchner: Local censorship and global public. Legitimation in the Age of Global Communication: The Case Study Tunisia . In: Angelika Hartmann (ed.): History and memory in Islam . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 978-3-525-35574-9 , pp. 274 f .
    19. ↑ Reporters Without Borders : "You have no rights here, but welcome to Tunisia!" ( Memento of February 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 872 kB). Report on the situation of freedom of the press and freedom of expression in Tunisia. Paris 2005, p. 2f.
    20. ^ Henner Kirchner: Local censorship and global public. Legitimation in the Age of Global Communication: The Case Study Tunisia . In: Angelika Hartmann (ed.): History and memory in Islam . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 978-3-525-35574-9 , pp. 276 f .
    21. ↑ Reporters Without Borders : Ranking list of press freedom worldwide 2010. ( Memento from April 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
    22. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k OpenNet Initiative : Internet Filtering in Tunisia in 2005: A Country Study.
    23. ↑ Reporters Without Borders : "You have no rights here, but welcome to Tunisia!" ( Memento of February 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 872 kB). Report on the situation of freedom of the press and freedom of expression in Tunisia. Paris 2005, p. 7.
    24. ↑ Reporters Without Borders : Predators of Press Freedom 2010. (PDF; 273 kB) List of the enemies of press freedom. P. 17.
    25. ↑ a b Reporters Without Borders : "You have no rights here, but welcome to Tunisia!" ( Memento of February 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 872 kB). Report on the situation of freedom of the press and freedom of expression in Tunisia. Paris 2005, p. 9.
    26. ↑ Reporters Without Borders : "You have no rights here, but welcome to Tunisia!" ( Memento of February 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 872 kB). Report on the situation of freedom of the press and freedom of expression in Tunisia. Paris 2005, p. 6.
    27. ^ Henner Kirchner: Local censorship and global public. Legitimation in the Age of Global Communication: The Case Study Tunisia . In: Angelika Hartmann (ed.): History and memory in Islam . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 978-3-525-35574-9 , pp. 281 f .
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