Rights organizations said Tuesday (January 18th) that freedoms in Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring, were now at risk after the violent crackdown on protests last week.
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“
It is clear that freedoms are under threat and face imminent peril
,” Yassine Jelassi, head of the National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT), said at a press conference organized by 21 rights organizations.
“
A security and policing mentality runs the state.
Tunisia has become a country that suppresses freedoms
,” he said.
Police “repression” and “barbaric” attacks
These same NGOs had denounced on Saturday a
police "
repression " and "
barbaric
" attacks against journalists and demonstrators during the protests organized on Friday against President Kais Saied. Demonstrations took place in Tunis against the Tunisian President's July 25 coup in which he assumed full powers and to mark the eleventh anniversary of the fall of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali on January 14, 2011. These gatherings had been banned by the authorities, officially for health reasons in the face of a resurgence of the Covid-19 epidemic.
In scenes of violence that had not been seen in the capital for 10 years, the police charged the demonstrators with large reinforcements of water cannons and tear gas and carried out dozens of muscular arrests.
The correspondent of the daily Liberation, Jeune Afrique and RFI, Mathieu Galtier, was assaulted by the police and prevented from covering this demonstration, denounced Liberation, RFI and the association of foreign correspondents in North Africa (NAFCC).
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Since the revolt that toppled dictator Ben Ali in 2011 and kicked off the Arab Spring uprisings in the region, Tunisia has made huge strides in areas of freedoms but has feared a return to authoritarian rule ever since. President Saied's coup de force.
