TUNIS, March 31 (Reuters) – A Tunisian court handed down a two-year prison sentence to news website editor Ghassen Ben Khelifa, in the latest prosecution targeting media workers, a move the journalists’ union described as part of a “systemic” attack on free speech.
The SNJT union said on Tuesday that Ben Khelifa, editor-in-chief of the news website Inhiyaz, was charged with publishing false news in a case dating back more than three years.
Ben Khelifa denied the charges, saying the case was fabricated and calling it evidence of a failing system.
The union said the ruling showed a “systematic targeting of critical voices”.
The case comes amid growing criticism by rights groups who say the government has cracked down on dissent including opposition leaders, journalists, and civil society activists since President Kais Saied began ruling by decree in 2021.
Saied rejects accusations that he is restricting press freedom, saying that all freedoms are guaranteed in Tunisia and that he will not be a dictator.
In January, another court convicted and sentenced two prominent journalists, Mourad Zghidi and Borhen Bsaies, to 3-1/2 years in prison on tax evasion charges, which critics said were intended as retaliation for their reporting and as a warning to intimidate independent voices.
Free speech had flourished following the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and sparked the “Arab Spring”.
Critics, however, say Saied’s 2021 power grab and subsequent decrees have dismantled democratic safeguards and allowed authorities to pursue journalists.
The journalists’ union says public media, including state TV and radio, have become a mouthpiece for Saied’s government, with independent journalists prevented from working freely and several facing prosecution in multiple cases.
(Reporting by Tarek Amara;Editing by Alison Williams)
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