RSF blast arrest of Tunisian journalist
2009-11-04
Tunisian authorities are charging Taoufik Ben Brik, a journalist and critic of the government, with committing crimes ranging from defamation to assault.
By Jamel Arfaoui for Magharebia in Tunis – 04/11/09
 [Fethi Belaid/AFP/Getty Images] Ben Ali critic Taoufik Ben Brik remains in prison on what RSF says are politically motivated charges. |
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemned the October 29th arrest of Taoufik Ben Brik, a Tunisian journalist and consistent critic of the country's ruling party.
In a statement released the following day, RSF accused Tunisian authorities of falsely charging the journalist in order to muzzle him. Ben Brik, 41, was arrested after an alleged altercation with a woman and charged with violating public decency, defamation, assault and damaging private property.
"These are trumped-up charges designed to ensure that Ben Brik languishes in prison," the statement reads. "This dissident journalist needs to take medicine regularly for a serious condition, Cushing's syndrome, but the authorities have opted to cause as much harm as possible. Therefore, we call for his release on humanitarian grounds pending his trial."
One of the lawyers defending Ben Brik, Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, said the complainant in the case "deliberately crashed into my client's car, which was stopped at a parking lot in Tunis". Next, the complainant allegedly left her car, yelled at Ben Brik, accused him of deliberately hitting her car, and finally tore his clothes "in order to provoke him to attack her", according to the statement.
According to RCD Secretary-General Mohammed Ghariani, Ben Brik will be tried not because of his opinions, but because of his alleged attack on a woman.
"[O]rganisations [such as RSF] have proven to be non-objective, biased and only listening to one side of the story," said Ghariani, speaking at a press conference on Tuesday.
"Tunisia is big, and bigger than these marginalised organisations," said the secretary-general, adding that "a citizen who is a human rights activist is not immune to legal consequences".
But Ben Brik's lawyers said that the legal proceedings against their client stemmed from his recent articles in several Western newspapers, in which he harshly criticised the Tunisian government. The articles were published around the time of the October 25th elections, in which President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali won a fifth term with more than 89% of the vote, and the ruling Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD) easily maintained its majority in Parliament.
Ben Brik is currently being held at Mornaguia prison, 20km north of Tunis. His trial is scheduled to begin on November 19th. RSF has warned that Ben Brik's health will "deteriorate quickly if he is unable to take medicine at regular set times".
Tunisia has witnessed various controversies over freedom of the press, including an alleged assault on two well-known journalists in March 2008.
Some members of the local media expressed concerns about how the most recent case involving a journalist would unfold.
"It's true that, according to the legal cover shown in the public prosecution's papers, the case is a public right case," journalist Taoufik Ayachi said in a statement to Magharebia. "However, the basics of the case, which are represented in the identity of the defendant and the timing of the incident itself, may completely strip it of the form it has been rolled out in and put it in the framework of opinion cases or political cases, in which activists are pursued not as people with dissident opinions, but as defendants in public rights cases. There are many precedents in this field."
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Anonymous Posted 16 days ago
Some years ago, the AFP correspondent in Tunisia did a paper on human rights in Tunisia. As is customary for foreign journalists who do not enjoy favours from Tunisia for their articles, his paper was full of lies. He pretended that Ben Ali does not respect human rights. He spoke of torture and the censorship of the press. As is also customary in Tunisia, the authorities did not bother this journalist because of his article. The only thing was, when he was going to get in his car to go to his office, he found a woman pressed up against his car. He approached her. The woman couldn't support herself upright and so collapsed, begging for him to take her to the hospital. He picked her up and opened the door to put her in. All of the sudden, the woman found her strength and took to crying out for help with all her strength. Miraculously, the police were present on scene. They threw themselves on the journalist and “freed” the “victim”. She told them that the “thug” wanted to forcefully kidnap her to what were most certainly not very honourable ends. In the end, the correspondent found himself at the police station with charges formally placed against him and the police as witness. His embassy could not do anything for him. According to the Tunisians, he was arrested red-handed. But, given the good relations between France and Tunisia, Tunisia was ready to let the journalist go quietly in order to avoid the scandal of a trial by court. He only had to sign a paper and vow to never again set foot in Tunisia. Everything turned out well and the woman in question withdrew her charge. Yet, by accident, could she have somehow become a victim of Ben Brik?
mouldi maaroufi Posted 15 days ago
So now we have rsf stating that the man did not commit the crime of causing bodily harm to the woman ,insult her and damage her car by his reckless driving and sudden break,why do they have to muddle in the tunisian justice system if it is not hatred and jalousy the poison chalice that they are trying to have us drink from so that they get more publicity as so called freedom fighters of journalists and specialists in world politics .Where is the right of the north africans killed ,murdered and those raped and imprisoned through the compaign of hate and false propaganda of a war without cause unleashed on a harmless,defenceless nation for over 70 years and guess what we still won and we throw the occupier out.THE WOUND inflicted on north africa by the french has not healed yet so i suggest that you look deeper inside your own corridors of power and adjust the wrongs and crimes committed in north africa before we take any notice of what you state.While i say this because it is true i love french people as a whole and i think they deserve better than some charlatans who false feed them the wrong information and distorted facts about other countries and democracies so that they may get sympathy ,donations.
freearabicca Posted 15 days ago
Spread the word! An unfortunate Tunisian blogger, Fatma Arabicca from Monastir, was arrested yesterday! (http://freearabicca.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/arrestation-de-fatma-arabicca) Pass this message along! Everyone needs to support her!!! The tag on twitter is “freearabicca”.
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