The National Union of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT) is threatening to hold a general strike in the wake of assaults endured by a group of journalists while covering a demonstration organized by the General Tunisian Labor Union (UGTT) last Saturday in downtown Tunis.
Many Tunisian journalists were verbally and physically aggressed by security forces at the demonstration, prompting the SNJT to release a statement on the same day condemning the practices of “repressive police.” The statement also expressed that a group of supporters of the government have been using violence and harassment to put pressure on Tunisian journalists and control the media.
Tunisian journalists said that despite wearing press jackets and showing their press cards, police agents, backed up by what appeared to be ordinary government supporters, attacked them. The SNJT called on the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) to condemn the assaults and take vigorous action against such practices. “The provisional prime minister, the provisional President of the Republic and the head of the NCA bear the full historic responsibility of protecting rights and freedoms in Tunisia,” stated the SNJT announcement.
Monji Khadhraoui, secretary general of the SNJT, called to enforce article 14 of the press code, passed last November, forbidding the verbal or physical assault of journalists.
In a statement made public yesterday, the UGTT called on opening an investigation into the attacks, prosecuting the perpetrators, and putting a halt to the repressive practices that “we believe had disappeared with the collapse of dictatorship.”