Reporters Without Borders' annual press freedom report revealed that Tunisia has dropped significantly in its ranking among countries worldwide, coinciding with a demonstration by dozens of journalists in Tunisia in defense of "press freedom."

The report stated that Tunisia ranked 120th out of 180 countries, up from 94th, while it was ranked 73rd in 2021.

For its part, the Tunisian Journalists Syndicate attributed this decline to the escalation of violations against journalists and the continuation of trials of opinion makers, she said.

The syndicate said on Wednesday that press freedom in Tunisia is in a "very bad situation" due to increasing violations and the authorities' restriction of access to information, accusing President Kais Saied of threatening freedom of expression in the country.

The head of the Journalists Syndicate, Mehdi Jelassi, said at a press conference that state television has turned into "a trivial propaganda mouthpiece that excludes all opposition voices," after it was everyone's voice in the past decade.

He added that indicators of freedom of the press, opinion and expression in Tunisia are "seriously declining", noting that several journalists have been prosecuted under the online publishing law known as Decree 54, considering that this decree signed by Saied was "the biggest setback to freedom of expression since 2011".

He added: "It is not only dangerous that we have fallen from 74th to 121st place in the press freedom index in two years, but also dangerous is the retreat from all the gains made by the revolution and brought by the blood of the martyrs."

Amira Mohamed, deputy head of the syndicate, said the enemies of press freedom in Tunisia are the president who stifled press freedom, the justice minister, who uses the public prosecution to initiate cases against journalists, and the security forces, who continue to abuse journalists and often obstruct their work.


Demonstration for journalists

The release of Reporters Without Borders' annual report coincided with a demonstration by dozens of Tunisian journalists on Wednesday in front of their syndicate's headquarters in Tunis in defense of "press freedom" and protest against "violations" in their country.

The National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT) had called for the demonstration under the slogan "Freedom of the press is in imminent danger".

Journalists chanted slogans such as "Journalism is not a crime" and "Hitting the press... Striking at the citizen's right to information", and "closed doors to the press... Locked cells on the minds."

For his part, denied Tunisian President Kais Saied, on Tuesday, prejudice to freedoms or prevent publication in his country, stressing that "there is no way to prevent any writer in Tunisia," and that "talk about that freedoms are threatened in Tunisia is a lie and slander," and considered that those who claim that there is no freedom of expression in Tunisia "either an agent or in a continuous intellectual coma."

Said added – during his visit to one of the libraries of Habib Bourguiba Avenue in the capital – that "freedoms will never be threatened, because freedom has a people to protect it, the revolution has a people to protect it, and the state has institutions to protect it."

Tunisia has been witnessing a political crisis since Saied began exceptional measures on July 25, 2021, including the dissolution of the Judicial Council and Parliament, the issuance of legislation by presidential orders, the holding of early legislative elections, and the adoption of a new constitution through a referendum.

Tunisian forces consider these measures "a consecration of absolute autocracy," while others see them as a "correction to the course of the 2011 revolution" that overthrew President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.