Police officers tried to interrupt the show of the very popular Tunisian comedian Lotfi Abdelli, for
"undermining good morals"
, arousing controversy and fears of a return of censorship in Tunisia as at the time of dictator Ben Ali.
Comedian and actor Lotfi Abdelli, 52, performed on Sunday at a festival in Sfax (Tunisia).
Police officers providing security attempted to shut down the show after a scene in which he criticized authorities and police, flipping several middle fingers.
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Lotfi Abdelli then took the public to witness to denounce the
“hostile”
behavior of
“three police officers”.
He accused them of throwing water bottles in his direction.
After the incident his show was able to resume.
To justify the behavior of the officers, a police union shared on its Facebook page on Tuesday
“the scene of the show which irritated us”
, saying
“sorry”
to publish such
“trivialities”
and
“nonsense”.
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Two police officers have filed a complaint against the comedian for
"undermining good morals"
, an official at the Interior Ministry told AFP on Tuesday.
This official made a point of specifying that the declarations of the trade union “
in no way represent the official position of the authorities or of the Ministry of the Interior”
.
The
"position (of the ministry) is delivered only by its official structures"
and
"its duty is to ensure that citizens exercise public and individual freedoms within the framework of what is authorized by law"
, affirmed the ministry in a statement.
The shadow of a return to censorship
On social networks, many Tunisians criticized the attitude of the police and rejected any influence on the content of the shows.
They also expressed their fears of a return to the
"repression"
of freedoms in Tunisia.
Satirical shows like that of Lotfi Abdelli were not allowed under the dictatorship of Ben Ali, overthrown by a revolution in 2011.
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For lawyer and human rights activist Bassem Trifi,
"the censorship exercised by the police is an assault on freedom of expression, freedom of opinion and freedom of the media guaranteed in the 2022 Constitution"
, barely adopted in a referendum.
On Facebook, he described the irruption of the police as a
“dangerous precedent”
, believing that the Ministry of the Interior had not adopted
“sufficiently rigorous sanctions against the behavior of the police.
When a group of security decides what is presented (on show), know that you are in a police state
.
The National Union of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT) for its part denounced attacks "against journalists
who were filming the attack by a trade union policeman against Lotfi Abdelli"
.
Since 2011, police officers have the right to organize into unions.
After the coup by President Kais Saied who assumed full powers a year ago, NGOs and representatives of civil society have warned of a possible decline in freedoms in the country.
