The groups denounced the closure of the National Authority for Access to Information (INAI), an independent body established in 2016 in the aftermath of the Arab Spring uprising of 2011 [GETTY]
Tunisian rights groups on Monday condemned the dissolution of an authority that sought to guarantee access to information for citizens and journalists.
The groups denounced the closure of the National Authority for Access to Information (INAI), an independent body established in 2016 in the aftermath of the Arab Spring uprising of 2011, as a setback for freedoms, as it aimed to safeguard rights to access information.
The government told AFP it had shut down the agency earlier this month and reassigned its staff to other government roles.
The National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT) said the move was made “in secret” with no major public announcement, criticising the government’s tighter restrictions on information.
“Access to information is increasingly locked now,” SNJT head Zied Dabbar told AFP.
“We cannot speak of press freedom if there is no access to information,” he added. “From now on, there will only be the official narrative, which will lead to propaganda.”
The journalists’ union described the measure as “the demolition of one of the fundamental pillars” of Tunisia’s fragile democracy.
President Kais Saied, elected in 2019, has ruled Tunisia by decree since a 2021 power grab, with local and international organisations decrying a decline in freedoms in the North African country.
Many of Saied’s critics are currently behind bars, including dozens of journalists and public figures who have been prosecuted under a 2022 law incriminating “spreading false news”.
“It has become clear that the authorities want to lock all sources of information,” said Romdhane Ben Amor, head of the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights. “This is a political choice to break with the constitutional bodies.”
“The space of rights and freedoms is more and more suffocated,” Ben Amor told AFP, warning that other institutions could also face closure.
