Tortured & harassed: Tunisian journalists are imprisoned for doing their job

On November 3, jailed journalist Chadha Haj Mbarek started a hunger strike in demand of better access to healthcare. She has been suffering from numerous illnesses and has neither had access to painkillers for over a month, nor been allowed to see a doctor.

‘[She] is now nothing more than a frail, downcast body, without a soul, exhausted by illness, injustice and ingratitude, unable to stand up or speak”, explained her brother. He also said that she now has to share her bed with four other inmates due to the overcrowding of prisons.

Mbarek became ill following her imprisonment in October 2021 due to carceral negligence and inhuman conditions. She was accused of conspiring against state security, disturbing public peace and committing an offense against the Tunisian president Kais Saied.

At the same time, renowned Tunisian journalist Mohamed Boughalleb, who has been imprisoned since March 2024 for allegedly defaming an official from the Ministry of Religious Affairs, was moved to a prison wing designated for dangerous criminals. His worsening health conditions led him to lose sight in one of his eyes and he is unable to hear in his left ear. Similarly, he has not been receiving medication for his heart condition, which led to his transfer to the hospital.

Journalist and lawyer Sonia Dahmani, who was jailed for criticising racist migration discourse and Saied’s great replacement theory, has also been living in inhumane conditions, according to her family members. Dahmani and her four cellmates went two days without any food after prison guards threw it away.

The guards also refused to give her winter clothes brought in by her family, and wouldn’t fix the broken window of her cell which lets the cold air seep in. ‘The choice is yours: catch lice and bathe in your own filth, or wash in cold water and risk getting sick’, attested Dahmani.

Her sister described the psychological torture and daily harassment that these prisons practice: “In Manouba’s prison for women, inhumanity reinvents itself every day, with cruelty that is beyond comprehension [...] They aren’t content with only imprisoning these women. They have to starve them, humiliate them, crush them, day in and day out”.

Growing repression

Two other journalists, Borhene Bsais and Mourad Zeghidi, who almost completed their sentence for “spreading misinformation”, are now being prosecuted in another affair for money laundering. This second accusation could be an attempt to rally public opinion against “corruption” and avoid using decree-law 54, which has been denounced as a tool to silence critics.

Human rights activists have previously called out this “rotation” process, which aims to keep political opponents jailed as long as possible by creating endless judicial procedures.

At least six Tunisian journalists are currently wrongfully imprisoned, according to Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF). In 2024, almost 40 journalists and media workers were prosecuted for doing their job. 211 others were attacked and/or prevented from working, mostly by officials and state representatives, according to the yearly report by the National Syndicate for Tunisian Journalists (SNJT).

The SNJT also expressed concern over the undermining of freedom of expression in Tunisia through the judiciary. Certainly, since Saied’s coup in 2021, judicial independence has been repeatedly eroded, especially following the unlawful dismissal of 57 judges, and the forcible transfer and suspension of a hundred others.

The number of cases involving the repression and targeting of journalists is only growing. Just recently for example, Khaoula Boukrim was questioned twice by the police and accused of assaulting a police officer while covering a protest in 2022. Hechmi Nouira, a former editor-in-chief of a Tunisian newspaper, had a complaint filed against him by The Independent High Authority for Elections for criticising them. The body’s members are mostly appointed by president Saied.

Another photojournalist had all their equipment confiscated for filming in front of the Ministry of Justice.

According to civil society organisations there has been a particular push to prosecute activists, trade unionists and protesters from various regions in Tunisia in recent weeks, as ‘part of a systematic policy to restrict freedom of peaceful protest, freedom of expression, as well as social, civil and syndicalist activism, and part of ongoing attempts to intimidate militant youth through unjustified prosecutions and trials’.

No one is safe

The latest wave of arrests has also hit content creators and online influencers who have been targeted on the basis of vague morality charges linked to the Penal Code, which prohibit content deemed contrary to social values and public ethics. The arrests came after a statement was released by the Ministry of Justice in October, which announced that anyone ‘producing, distributing, or publishing images or videos with content that undermines moral values’ would be prosecuted.

Musicians also found themselves caught in the web of repression. One rapper was interrogated by the police, and another has his songs temporarily removed from online sites.

This latest crackdown by the state could be read as an attempt to eliminate opposition and remain the sole source of information for the people. After all, Social media platforms like Tiktok, Instagram and Facebook, have long been used by Saied’s sympathisers to propagate particular ideas - some often bordering on conspiracies and hate speech.

Attacks on free speech may also be serving to soothe conservative supporters of the president by presenting the state as the custodian of virtue and ethics. They are also a distraction from the country’s worsening economic conditions that are leaving many unable to get by.

Meanwhile, the pleas of imprisoned journalists - to live in humane and dignified conditions - remain unanswered. “My sister is no longer waiting for freedom which has become an unattainable dream [...] but she is only seeking painkillers, her right to treatment and a bed to shelter what remains of her tired and wounded body,” concluded Chadha Haj Mbarek’s brother.

The National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists echoes these demands, and has condemned the conditions that these journalists are being kept in. It calls for better access to healthcare and accommodation for journalists, denouncing a policy of methodical harassment, implemented through public institutions.

However, the future for journalists feels hopeless as censorship is increasingly accepted and normalised, especially amongst those employed in state media. Mass mobilisation of journalists to defend their colleagues thus feels like a distant dream as Europe continues to disregard all human rights violations in Tunisia as long as migration is halted at its borders. Hope can only come from collective liberation and mass protests, as populist discourses run out of enemies to scapegoat.

The author is writing anonymously to protect their identity.

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Opinions expressed here are the author's own, and do not necessarily reflect those of their employer, or of The New Arab and its editorial board or staff.