The following is an excerpt of a 25 June 2019 CPJ blog post by Robert Mahoney/CPJ Deputy Executive Director.
Tunisia’s progression to a freer society took center stage this month, as journalists, digital rights activists, and tech companies gathered in Tunis for RightsCon and the IFJ congress. Tunisia has secured greater press freedom than many of the Arab Spring countries, but local journalists told CPJ that with elections slated for this year, challenges including funding, transparency, and government pressure remain.
Tunisian journalists were all welcoming smiles this month. RightsCon, an annual gathering of the world’s digital freedom fighters and Silicon Valley companies, was in town. So too was the International Federation of Journalists for its 30th annual congress.
The presence of so many champions of freedom of expression was a point of pride for many, an acknowledgement of Tunisia’s transition from the stifling dictatorship of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to a democracy with a relatively free press.
By any measure, Tunisia’s 12 million people enjoy the freest media of any of the 22 countries that make up the Arab world.
Read the full blog post on CPJ’s site.
The post Upcoming elections could make or break Tunisia’s fledgling free press appeared first on IFEX.
Source: MEDIA FEED
