In September 2022, the Tunisian president Kais Saied signed Decree Law 54, which purported to combat "false information and rumours" on the Internet. Article 24 of the decree gives up to five years imprisonment and a fine of up to 50,000 dinar for anyone found to be spreading such information. This is doubled if the offending statement is made about a state official. [1] [2]
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Since the Tunisian Revolution in 2011, Tunisia has had the greatest freedom of the press of any Arab country. [3] However, following terrorist attacks in 2015, there was an increased clampdown on freedom of the press in Tunisia. [4]
However, the new law, which was drafted and approved following the self-coup in 2021, has been criticised. The president of the National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists, Mahdi Al-Jelassi, described the law as "a new setback for rights and freedoms. The penalties for publishing in any networks are a strong blow to the revolutionary values that granted freedom to all journalists and all Tunisians", and likened the legislation to dictatorial laws the former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali used to silence dissidents. [5] [6]
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) in Geneva, Switzerland, says the law allows the president to censor any and all Internet communications that he does not approve, noting that Article 24 does not specify what is a falsehood or rumour. [1] In January 2023, five United Nations Special Rapporteurs expressed their "deep concerns" about the decree and its compatibility with international law, [1] and Amnesty International has described the law as "draconian". [7]
As of July 2023 [update] , at least 14 people have been investigated under the law, [lower-alpha 1] with some being arrested and put in jail, according to Tunisia. This includes Mehdi Zagrouba, a lawyer wrote a Facebook post accusing the justice minister of fabricating evidence in a case against 57 judges who were accused of corruption and alleged delays in the prosecution of claimed terrorism cases. Zagrouba is now serving an 11-month sentence and has been barred from practising law for five years. [1]
Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a part of the Maghreb region of North Africa, bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares maritime borders with Italy through the islands of Sicily and Sardinia to the north and Malta to the east. It features the archaeological sites of Carthage dating back to the 9th century BC, as well as the Great Mosque of Kairouan. Known for its ancient architecture, souks, and blue coasts, it covers 163,610 km2 (63,170 sq mi), and has a population of 12.1 million. It contains the eastern end of the Atlas Mountains and the northern reaches of the Sahara desert; much of its remaining territory is arable land. Its 1,300 km (810 mi) of coastline includes the African conjunction of the western and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Basin. Tunisia is home to Africa's northernmost point, Cape Angela. Located on the northeastern coast, Tunis is the capital and largest city of the country, which is itself named after Tunis. The official language of Tunisia is Modern Standard Arabic. The vast majority of Tunisia's population is Arab and Muslim. Vernacular Tunisian Arabic is the most spoken, and French also serves as an administrative and educational language in some contexts, but it has no official status.
The politics of Tunisia takes place within the framework of a unitary semi-presidential representative democratic republic, with a president serving as head of state, prime minister as head of government, a unicameral legislature and a court system influenced by French civil law. Between 1956 and 2011, Tunisia operated as a de facto one-party state, with politics dominated by the secular Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD) under former presidents Habib Bourguiba and then Zine el Abidine Ben Ali. However, in 2011 a national uprising led to the ousting of Ben Ali and the dismantling of the RCD, paving the way for a multi-party democracy. October 2014 saw the first democratic parliamentary elections since the 2011 revolution, resulting in a win by the secularist Nidaa Tounes party with 85 seats in the 217-member assembly.
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, commonly known as Ben Ali or Ezzine, was a Tunisian politician who served as the second president of Tunisia from 1987 to 2011. In that year, during the Tunisian revolution, he was overthrown and fled to Saudi Arabia.
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Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Tunisia face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Both male and female kinds of same-sex sexual activity are illegal in the country. According to the United States Department of State's 2018 report on human rights in Tunisia, "authorities occasionally use [the anti-sodomy law] to detain and question persons about their sexual activities and orientation, reportedly at times based on appearance alone."
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Ziad el-Doulatli is a Tunisian activist affiliated with the Islamist Ennahda Movement, for which he is an executive.
Beji Caid Essebsi served as the fifth president of Tunisia from 31 December 2014 until his death on 25 July 2019. Previously, he served as minister of foreign affairs from 1981 to 1986 and prime minister from February to December 2011.
Cannabis in Tunisia is illegal. Cannabis is also known as Zatla nationally or Takrouri regionally.
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National Women's Day is celebrated in Tunisia every year on August 13. It commemorates the day of adoption of the Code of Personal Status in Tunisia, the 13th of August in 1956, the year of independence in Tunisia. The code enacted laws for the family that contain fundamental changes, the most important of which is the prohibition of polygamy, the withdrawal of guardianship from men and the making of divorce by the court instead of men.
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Kais Saied is a Tunisian politician, jurist and retired assistant professor of law currently serving unlawfully as the seventh president of Tunisia since October 2019. He was president of the Tunisian Association of Constitutional Law from 1995 to 2019.
Moataz Matar is an Egyptian journalist who became famous after the 2011 revolution thanks to his program Mu'taz broadcast on El-Sharq satellite channel. He is known for his harsh criticism of the Egyptian government after the 2013 coup d'état, as well as the deterioration of the political situation in the Arab World in general.
The 2021 Tunisian self-coup took place on 25 July 2021, when Tunisian President Kais Saied dismissed the government of Hichem Mechichi, suspended the Assembly of the Representatives of the People and revoked the immunity of its members. Described as a self-coup, the move came after a period of political instability marked by a series of protests against the Ennahda-backed government and the collapse of the Tunisian healthcare system amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
Presidential elections were held in Tunisia on 6 October 2024, to elect the President of Tunisia. This was the first election of its kind since the promulgation of the 2022 Constitution. The election was boycotted by most political parties. After rejecting many candidacies, including those of the main opponents of Kais Saied, the Independent High Authority for Elections confirmed the candidacies of two personalities outside the head of state, those of former deputies Zouhair Maghzaoui and Ayachi Zammel, but rejected those of Mondher Zenaidi, Abdellatif Mekki and Imed Daimi, who had been reinstated by the Administrative Court. This decision is however contrary to the Constitution, which stipulates that the decisions of the Administrative Court cannot be appealed.
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Law nº2021-021 on the protection of national symbols and the criminalization of attacks on State authority and the honor of the citizen, better known as the Law on Protection of National Symbols or Symbols Law, is a controversial Mauritanian law criminalizing "acts committed with a view to undermine the authority of the State, its symbols, national security, civil peace, social cohesion, private life and the honor of the citizen". It was introduced by the Council of Ministers on 14 July 2021 and, after months of heated debate, passed on the National Assembly on 9 November 2021.
