Press Release

The Tunisian government’s harassment of opposition figures and journalists during the lead-up to presidential and legislative elections on October 25 is deeply troubling, Freedom House said today.

In the months prior to the elections, opposition candidates have been continually harassed by government officials and have been forced to meet outside Tunisia, despite authorities’ efforts to keep them from traveling abroad. Hama Hammami, the speaker of the Tunisian Labor Party, was beaten at the beginning of October after giving an interview to Al Jazeera; a week later, he was prevented from traveling to a conference in Paris.

Journalists and other activists have also been targets of government repression. Reporter and popular blogger Zied el Heni was beaten on October 15; while his attacker has not been identified, it is widely believed that the government played a role. His blog has been shut down by authorities more than 20 times.

Voting has not yet begun, but these violations have already severely damaged Tunisia’s electoral process, said Freedom House.

"Without freedom of association and press, these elections lack any credibility,” said Jennifer Windsor, Freedom House’s executive director. “We had few illusions that the process would be a democratic one, but the travel restrictions and the beating of el Heni take the situation to a new low.”

Opposition groups’ freedom to operate in Tunisia was already limited, due to the April 2008 passage of a constitutional amendment limiting the number of opposition candidates  eligible to run and increasing the president’s power.

According to Freedom in the World 2009, Tunisia’s government is an authoritarian one. Presidential critics face beatings or jail time, and many political prisoners are still in custody. Conditions for journalists in Tunisia are among the worst in the Arab world: the Tunisian government continues to block free expression in print journalism, television, and radio, and is among the most aggressive regimes in policing the internet.

Tunisia is ranked Not Free in the 2009 edition of Freedom in the World, Freedom House’s annual survey of political rights and civil liberties, and Not Free in the 2009 version of Freedom of the Press.

To learn more about Tunisia, read:

Freedom in the World 2009: Tunisia
Freedom of the Press 2008: Tunisia
 
Freedom House, an independent nongovernmental organization that supports the expansion of freedom in the world, has been monitoring political rights and civil liberties in Tunisia since 1972.