Tunisia: Liberation journalist beaten by protest agents

(ANSA) - PARIS, 15 JAN - The correspondent of the Liberation newspaper in Tunisia was beaten by the police and prevented from following yesterday's demonstration against President Kais Saied. This was reported by the French daily and the association of foreign correspondents in North Africa.

    "While following a demonstration against President Kais Saied, our correspondent Mathieu Galtier was violently beaten by several police officers. The management of the newspaper strongly condemns this attack", is the comment of Liberation on its website.

    Yesterday demonstrations were organized in the Tunisian capital against the president, on the occasion of the eleventh anniversary of the fall of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. The rallies, banned by the government, were dispersed by security forces, resulting in scenes of violence rarely seen in the capital. "Mathieu Galtier was filming the arrest of a protester with his cell phone when he was attacked by a uniformed policeman," Liberation reports. The correspondent, quoted by the newspaper, explains that he immediately identified himself as a journalist in French and Arabic, while the policeman tried to pick up his phone. The reporter is then seen "lifting and dragging between two vans". "They started beating me all over, I was on the ground, curled up in fetal position,I was shouting that I was a reporter. They kicked me. In the end, they took my phone, my card and left me there, "he said. Rescued by the fire brigade, the correspondent was then returned his belongings with the exception of the phone memory card on which the images and videos of the protest were recorded The doctor then prescribed a 10-day convalescence. (ANSA).