The National Union of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT) staged on Thursday a protest rally with civil society organisations and the Tunisian League of Human Rights (LTDH) to denounce the appeal judgment against the journalist of the private radio Mosaïque FM Khalifa Guesmi. The latter was sentenced to 5 years in prison.
On this occasion, President of the union Yassine Jelassi said that the sentence imposed on Guesmi is "unjust", considering that the application of the law on terrorism in trials against journalists is illegal because they are "only subject to Decree-Law No. 2011-115 of 2 November 2011 on the freedom of the press, printing and publishing".
According to Jelassi, this is an attack on the media sector by imposing a fait accompli policy, referring to the cases brought against Nizar Bahloul, Mohamed Boughalleb and Monia Arfaoui.
For her part, SNJT vice-president Amira Mohamed said that "history will remember the persecution of journalists by the security forces during Kais Saied's term in office", considering that these persecutions "target all free voices".
The specialised chamber for terrorist crimes at the Tunis Court recently sentenced, on appeal, journalist Khalifa Guesmi, correspondent of Mosaïque FM in Kairouan, for having broadcast information gathered from a security source.
Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse