13 May 2009 - The TMG has written to President Ben Ali to express concern over government efforts to undermine the independence of the Syndicat National des Journalists Tunisiens (SNJT) and interfere in its work. Following the publication of a SNJT report criticising the lack of press freedom in Tunisia on 4 May, a government-backed campaign was launched to remove the leadership of the new union and produce a press freedom report that is more supportive of the regime. In addition, SNJT President Neji Bghouri has been under attack since the day he released the report – facing both physical and verbal aggression that day, with continued verbal assaults until now.

6 May 2009 - Three of Tunisia's most recognised - and victimised - free expression defenders have been awarded this year's International Publishers Association (IPA) Freedom to Publish Prize. Sihem Bensedrine, Neziha Rejiba and Mohammed Talbi, founders of the Observatory for the Freedom of the Press, Publishing and Creation (OLPEC), IFEX's member in Tunisia, were voted joint recipients of the 2009 prize for "their exemplary courage in upholding freedom to publish."

4 February 2009 - Tunisian plainclothes police surrounded and raided the offices of newly-launched Kalima satellite radio station and detained one of its journalists in January, the latest affront on independent journalism in the country, say IFEX TMG and other IFEX members. The standoff at the offices, which also house two human rights groups, IFEX member OLPEC and CNLT intensified the following day with heavier police presence. Then on 30 January, police, accompanied by Tunisia's deputy prosecutor, raided Kalima's studios, seized equipment, forced staff out and sealed the building. Since then, a number of staff have been arrested and released. Radio Kalima was started by the same team that runs the locally blocked online news site Kalima. The station began satellite broadcasts in late January, in addition to their previously web-only radio programming.

Sihem Bensedrine, a staunch free expression advocate and editor of Kalima, told IPI she's convinced that the launch prompted the police assault. "This is obviously a way to silence this radio ... They (the authorities) can control all things on the land. They cannot control the sky, and for this reason they are reacting like this. We will continue broadcasting on satellite even after what happened today, and Radio Kalima will never be silenced," Bensedrine said.

14 January 2009 (Op-Ed By Rohan Jayasekera, published in the Daily Star, Lebanon) - There's an old proverb that "a lie can get halfway round the world before the truth has got its boots on." As free expression campaigners we are used to governments sponsoring disinformation and lies to discredit critics. Every country has a few state-run or government-favored publications willing to run lies on their behalf. What's new is the scale of these disinformation operations, which now spread to the planting of news, adverts and paid-for editorials in foreign papers as well as the local press. The most brazen practitioner of this kind of propaganda is Tunisia, which has unleashed a storm of such material at home and abroad, in reaction to the way its record of human rights abuse is being exposed internationally.
 

In December a French court found Tunisian ex-diplomat Khaled Ben Said guilty of torture and sentenced him in absentia to eight years jail. Days later a leading witness for the prosecution, journalist and free speech campaigner Sihem Bensedrine, found herself the target of a major propaganda attack..... Last week, media rights groups in France, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom complained to the global news agency United Press International for republishing the false allegations.

22 December 2008 - The TMG held a special event in Beirut during the 3rd Arab Free Press Forum, organised by WAN on 12 December. Despite attempts by the Tunisian authorities to disrupt the event, including by preventing journalist Lofti Hidouri of OLPEC and human rights lawyer Mohamed Abbou from travelling, the event managed to attract attention and solidarity from journalists and activists from the region. Naziha Rjiba and Sihem Bensedrine of "Kalima" online magazine and OLPEC said the jailing of Hidouri perfectly illustrates the repression of independent journalists and rights activists in Tunisia. (See Rjiba's presentation at: http://fikra.blip.tv/file/1650768/) Bensedrine read a poetic speech by Abbou, in which he said, "I take this opportunity to say to all who contributed to defending and supporting me when I was imprisoned under the tyranny of dictatorship that their effort did not go in vain, and without their support, my imprisonment would have been much harder. Without this solidarity, those who threatened my family would have carried out their threats." See the video: http://blip.tv/file/1638389/ and see questions from the audience at: http://blip.tv/file/1639013/

11 December 2008 - On 10 December, Mohamed Abbou, a human rights lawyer and writer, and journalist Lotfi Hidouri were prevented from travelling to Beirut for the 3rd Arab Free Press Forum. Abbou was once again prevented from leaving the country by the airport police, while Hidouri was taken into detention in the airport on his way to Beirut. He was held in jail overnight and taken to court today.
(Photo: Mohamed Abbou and his daughter. Source: PDP)

13 November 2008 - OLPEC reports that more websites have been hacked in Tunisia, since the hacking of Kalima in October. Tunisnews was the target of a hacking attack on 5 November 2008, but the site was restored. The same day,
 the site of the opposition Parti Démocratique Progressiste (PDP) was the target of an act of sabotage that completely destroyed its archives. The images illustrating the articles were replaced with the skull of a pirate. It is the fourth time this year that the PDP's site has been the object of such an attack. The site of opposition activist Moncef Marzouki was also hacked. praising Ben Ali, which are presented as news stories.
(Photo: Maya Jribi of PDP trying to enter PDP offices. Source: PDP.)

11 November 2008 - To mark the 21st anniversary of Ben Ali's Presidency, CPJ and RSF issued statements noting the ongoing censorship and repression of dissent in Tunisa. ANHRI also issued a press release noting that newspapers in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon continue to publish paid advertisements praising Ben Ali, which are presented as news stories.