The National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists confirmed this evening, Wednesday, September 01, 2021, its rejection of the violent security attacks that targeted journalists during their coverage this evening of a protest movement on Habib Bourguiba Street in the center of the capital.
In a statement, the Syndicate stated that it witnessed these attacks on the ground and confirmed that the security agents deliberately prevented journalists from working and assaulted them while they were performing their work.
The Syndicate considered that these recorded attacks against journalists are “a serious decline in the security dealings with field journalists during their coverage of the protest movements, and a dangerous indication of a setback in the path of journalists towards freedom,” according to the text of the statement.
It called on the President of the Republic to take all necessary measures to guarantee freedom of press work and the protection of journalists.
On the other hand, the union denounced what it said was “a return to the use of security violence against peaceful protesters, which suggests the return of the methods of the former regime and the Troika regime (the government of the Ennahda, Ettakatol, and Congress parties from 2011 to January 2014) that are hostile to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.”
In this context, it called on the Ministry of Interior to open an investigation into the attacks against journalists, and to provide a clear public condemnation of the attacks against field journalists.
The syndicate’s statement stated that five journalists were subjected to violent attacks, pushes and bans from working by security forces who were wearing uniforms while covering the protest movement to demand revealing the truth of the political assassinations.
Rifi-JDD
