TUNIS (Reuters) – A Tunisian judge released on Friday a journalist who refused to reveal his sources and who was imprisoned for a week, the country’s main journalism union said.
The anti-terrorism police detained last week Khelifa Guesmi, a radio reporter, for refusing to reveal his sources on a story about militants.
The reporter’s imprisonment sparked widespread anger among human rights organizations, which warned of a serious threat to press freedom. The journalists’ union has said freedom is seriously threatened adding that state media will go on strike next week because of what it called attempts by President Kais Saied to control state television.
Freedom of speech and press was a key gain for Tunisians after the 2011 revolution that ended the rule of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and triggered the Arab spring protests.
However, the democratic system adopted after the uprising is in deep crisis after Saied last year suspended the parliament, seized executive power and brushed aside the constitution to rule by decree.
Saied has promised to uphold rights and freedoms won in the revolution, but his critics say his actions, which also include replacing a body that guaranteed judicial independence, show he is determined to cement one-man rule
(Reporting by Tarek Amara; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
