Tunisia: protests after clampdown on freedom of expression
Image by: Alfaseyera Ltd
Protests have erupted in Tunisia to protest the crackdown on freedom of expression, marking an increase in tensions between the people and President Kais Saied’s regime.
Reported by the Middle East Monitor on January 15th, protestors chanted slogans like, “No fear, no terror, the street belongs to the people”, as well as “The revolution is coming” and “the freedoms of the police state are over”.
Organised by the Tunisian Network for Rights and Freedoms, a coalition of leftist associations, the protests marked the 14th anniversary of the revolution that overthrew President Ben Ali in 2011, after 23 years of dictatorship.
The Secretary-General of the Tunisian Workers’ Party, Hamma Hammami, stated, “the people aspire to achieve the slogan chanted in 2011, which is: work, freedom, and national dignity”.
Hammami also said, “we are back at square one of tyranny, but under the ashes there is a flame”.
When the Tunisian people overthrew Ben Ali’s regime there was international hope that democracy would sweep the country, placing power back in the hands of the people.
However, the post-coup dictatorship of President Kais Saied imposed exceptional measures in 2021 where the Prime Minister was sacked and parliament suspended.
The state has arrested political opponents and activists, some of whom the authorities accuse of “conspiring against state security”, according to the Middle East Monitor.
Amnesty International also reported that Saied’s 2021 power grab has escalated their repression of free speech as they clamp down on civil society groups.
Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa director has said, “Tunisian authorities are methodically annihilating two of the last remaining gains of the 2011 revolution: freedom of expression and the press”.
Despite the continuous clampdown on expression, the Tunisian people continue to protest Saied’s emergency rule.
The collapse of the neighboring regime in Syria signals that the Arab Spring that began in Tunisia in 2011 may not be over.
Middle East Monitor, Amnesty International
