Post date: Jun 06, 2012 7:29:43 PM
TUNIS, TUNISIA (JUNE 05, 2012) (REUTERS) - A group of Tunisian bloggers on Tuesday (June 5) announced they were on hunger strike against restrictions on press freedom.
Online journalists go on hunger strike to protest at recent Islamist attacks against the media as many secularists fear these incidents are signs the interim government wants to roll back gains in freedom of expression after the uprising.
Ramzi Bettibi who writes for a collective online blog Nawaat said he had been on hunger strike for seven days in protest after military police confiscated his filming equipment during the trial of deposed Tunisian leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and 22 of his co-defendants on May 21.
"On May 21st, I went to the military court in the town of El Kef along with the families of the martyrs. I was filming the live streaming from the screen provided by the court outside. I was surprised when soldiers confiscated my equipment and threatened me so that I would leave the area. It was an act of intimidation," said Bettibi.
Bettibi said Tunisian soldiers blocked him from filming the pleadings of Ben Ali's 22 co-defendants who are accused of killings in the towns of Kasserine, Thala, Tajerouine and Kairouan during the January 2011 pro-democracy uprising.
"I have came to the conclusion that there's a 'judicial farce' being performed concerning the cases of those martyred and wounded during the revolution," said Bettibi.
The standoff between the media, dominated by secularists, and the government, now led by Islamist moderates Ennahda, reflects a broader struggle over identity in what has for decades been among the Arab world's most secular countries.
Bettibi said his hunger strike was not aimed at the military directly but rather to highlight that gains in press freedom were in danger.
"We're not on hunger strike to target the military because it's sacred. Yet, our duty toward the military itself is to point to any breaches and to break the wall of pretences. Recognition (of the role of the military) does not mean excusing the military or remaining silent," added Bettibi, while meeting with other bloggers who were among the group going on hunger strike.
The military is not the only body that journalists fear could hinder press freedom. Islamists attacked Tunisian Nessma television station in October for airing an animated film that depicted God, accusing it of stirring up trouble on the eve of the country's first election since the January uprising.
Police detained the protesters, but also put Nessma's boss on trial. Among the charges: violating "sacred values".
In February, Nassredine Ben Saida, the publisher of a tabloid newspaper set up after the revolution, was jailed for eight days and fined after he plastered a picture of a German-Tunisian footballer and his naked girlfriend on the front page.
Tunisian journalists and secularists fear these and other incidents are signs the interim government wants to roll back gains in freedom of expression after the uprising.
Fellow blogger Houssam Hajlaoui said the hunger strike had a broad purpose.
"The issue is bigger than it appears to be, therefore we have to show support (for each other) and solidarity."
The president of the Tunisian Human Rights League, Abdessattar Moussa met with the hunger striking bloggers on Tuesday and said their protest was a "legitimate act".
"The behaviour of the military is an attack on the rights of journalists to have access to information. This is not just about the confiscation of cameras, because cameras can be returned. There's a dangerous side to the story. It's the attempt to limit the right of the journalist to access information," Moussa added.
Lawyer Anour al Bassi, who also met with the Bettibi and other hunger strikers, said cases of journalists being targeted in Tunisia was on the rise.
"I think that if we counted the number of times journalists have been targeted after the revolution, we would find these incidents are ten times greater than similar events over the last 30 years," said al Bassi.
What concerns many is that legal action has tended to focus on issues of public morality and ignore important issues such as the poor sourcing and libel that plague the profession. With the ban on criticism of the government only recently lifted, Tunisian journalists worry that they are tripping over new red lines.
The government denies that it is clamping down on freedom of the press.
When questioned about growing limitations on press freedom the head of Ennahda Rachid Ghannouchi said it was the media that was running amok and helping to polarise the political debate. He said the government wants the media to be 'professional' and 'objective'.
Nawaat blog was launched in 2004 and was soon blocked in Tunisia, only gaining open operations in January last year. The blog actively published stories on opposition protests against the leadership of Ben Ali, prior to his ouster.