Police question two Tunisian journalists after controversial program

Tunis, Tunisia – Prominent Tunisian columnist Haythem El Mekki and radio co-host Elyes Gharbi have been released by a prosecutor after questioning about their comments about the country’s powerful security forces.

On Monday, the two journalists were questioned at a police station in the El Gorjani area of ​​the capital Tunis as their colleagues and human rights activists protested outside.

No date has yet been set for his next appearance. No charges have been confirmed against him either. For the time being, both men remain free on bail, pending further charges and a possible trial.

The case relates to a complaint filed by one of Tunisia’s powerful security unions over comments made by El Mekki on May 15 on the Gharbi Midi Show on Mosaique FM radio.

El Mekki criticized police recruitment methods following the killing of six people, including two pilgrims, at the El Ghriba synagogue on the island of Djerba by a member of the National Guard on duty in early May.

Privately owned Mosaique FM is among the most listened to stations in Tunisia, and Midi Show is extraordinarily popular with its 1.5 million listeners.

“The Midi Show is one of the last radio shows to give voice and feature opposition figures,” said activist Nessryne Jelalia, who, along with around 100 journalists and human rights defenders, had gathered outside the police headquarters in Tunis where El Mekki and Gharbi were being detained. disputed

Jelalia said El Mekki’s first brush with national prominence was some 30 years ago this month through his involvement in an anti-censorship campaign, and he is now subject to prosecution on free expression charges. Of all the Tunisian online bloggers whose activity helped bring about the country’s revolution, El Mekki is the only one left.

People listen to him talk, he said, “about the political situation, about the news, and the way he talks draws really big audiences. He is one of the few we have”.

Jelalia praised El Mekki’s role as a satirist of modern political mores.

Monday’s hearing was the latest in a growing number of prosecutions by President Kais Saied and his allies.

Following the arrests of Saied’s political opponents and critics, there has been an unprecedented crackdown on dissent within the media, and apparently specifically within the independent radio station where El Mekki works, Mosaique FM.

In early February, the station’s general manager, Noureddine Boutar, was arrested and later charged with money laundering. However, according to his lawyers, the “editorial line” of the station and of the Midi Show in particular also figured prominently during the interrogation.

Last week, one of the station’s regional correspondents, Khalifa Guesmi, was sentenced to five years in prison after refusing to reveal the sources of a security story he had written.

Questions about the future of the station circulated widely among the crowd gathered in front of the police headquarters.