Geneviève Beaulieu Veilleux
“One must keep in mind that freedom of the press doesn’t exist in print per se; we rather talk of freedom of expression”, indicates Louis-Philippe Lampron, a professor of Law at Université Laval. Thus, depending on the wording, speaking, thinking, writing and printing freely are concepts defended by the law under certain limits.
M. Lampron insists that freedom of expression is a sine que non condition for the existence of a democratic regime. “That freedom exists through, among other things, greater protection for journalists and a guarantee of the independence of the media”, he says. The professor refers to the intimidation that weighed on journalists in Tunisia during the dictatorial era.
Taïeb Moalla, a Tunisian-born journalist who had been invited to comment on the situation of freedom of the press in Tunisia before and after the revolution, didn’t mince his words. “We’ve gone from 50 years of constipation to a total verbal diarrhea. It’s not pretty, but, as a relief, it sure works!”, he quipped. According to him, denouncing censorship is a duty, a matter of principle. “You must protect the freedom of information and the press from censorship or intimidation, that you be a reader or a journalist”.
M. Moalla, who works for the Journal de Québec, insists that the job of a journalist has been largely the same for 25 years. “What’s changed is the conditions. We’re much safer now. The number of times a journalist had to risk his life to break out the news under Ben Ali, you wouldn’t imagine!” He speaks by experience, but one can also recall the case of Soufiène Ben Hamida, of the Nessma news channel, who suffered intimidation when rebels tagged his car with the word “infidel”. Many other journalists have been molested or sexually attacked in the exercise of their functions, like CBS journalist Lara Logan was in Egypt in February of 2011.
After the fall of Ben Ali, or the “predator of freedom of the press”, as some like to call him, hope is now back for the free flow of information. Yet, bad habits die hard, and it’s with reservations that Mrs Lampron and Moalla look at the transition in Tunisia. “We’ve found freedom again, now there’s no letting anyone take it back from us in any way. We have to fight every day, as propaganda isn’t as in your face as before, but it’s still there in a subtler way”, said M. Moalla.
If the multiplication of news sources is in itself a good thing for M. Moalla, quality leaves a lot to be desired. He has good hopes that credibility will come back. “You must keep in mind that even if something is published 100 times or even 100 000 times, it doesn’t become truer for it. Rigor matters”.
How to regain credibility after decades of media disinformation and too-close-for-comfort links between the media and the Ben Ali family? The journalist things the media should do more ground reporting, as credibility comes along with backing information with evidence. He concedes that Tunisian journalists have a lot to ask forgiveness for. Yet, there’s a will.
And Tunisia in 20 years? “I dream of democracy, of the respect of freedoms, and I feel like it’s possible. We had our dictators flee without foreign assistance and we’ve held free elections less than a year after our revolution, it’s an enormous step!”, underscores a hopeful M. Moalla.
Taïeb Moalla, a Tunisian-born journalist who had been invited to comment on the situation of freedom of the press in Tunisia before and after the revolution, didn’t mince his words. “We’ve gone from 50 years of constipation to a total verbal diarrhea. It’s not pretty, but, as a relief, it sure works!”, he quipped. According to him, denouncing censorship is a duty, a matter of principle. “You must protect the freedom of information and the press from censorship or intimidation, that you be a reader or a journalist”.
M. Moalla, who works for the Journal de Québec, insists that the job of a journalist has been largely the same for 25 years. “What’s changed is the conditions. We’re much safer now. The number of times a journalist had to risk his life to break out the news under Ben Ali, you wouldn’t imagine!” He speaks by experience, but one can also recall the case of Soufiène Ben Hamida, of the Nessma news channel, who suffered intimidation when rebels tagged his car with the word “infidel”. Many other journalists have been molested or sexually attacked in the exercise of their functions, like CBS journalist Lara Logan was in Egypt in February of 2011.
After the fall of Ben Ali, or the “predator of freedom of the press”, as some like to call him, hope is now back for the free flow of information. Yet, bad habits die hard, and it’s with reservations that Mrs Lampron and Moalla look at the transition in Tunisia. “We’ve found freedom again, now there’s no letting anyone take it back from us in any way. We have to fight every day, as propaganda isn’t as in your face as before, but it’s still there in a subtler way”, said M. Moalla.
If the multiplication of news sources is in itself a good thing for M. Moalla, quality leaves a lot to be desired. He has good hopes that credibility will come back. “You must keep in mind that even if something is published 100 times or even 100 000 times, it doesn’t become truer for it. Rigor matters”.
How to regain credibility after decades of media disinformation and too-close-for-comfort links between the media and the Ben Ali family? The journalist things the media should do more ground reporting, as credibility comes along with backing information with evidence. He concedes that Tunisian journalists have a lot to ask forgiveness for. Yet, there’s a will.
And Tunisia in 20 years? “I dream of democracy, of the respect of freedoms, and I feel like it’s possible. We had our dictators flee without foreign assistance and we’ve held free elections less than a year after our revolution, it’s an enormous step!”, underscores a hopeful M. Moalla.
As Jean-François Julliard, secretary general of Reporters Without Borders, said last month in an open letter to the Tunisian leaders, the new country is making its first steps discovering freedom and some advice is welcome. “It is time, more than ever, that the new authorities take their responsibilities toward these problems. They must send a strong signal to all those who trample on freedom of expression and the freedom of journalists to spread information with full independence. Beyond polemics, political matters and personal religious convictions, freedom of expression, as the first gain of the revolution, must be backed by a consensus and be protected by all. It is everyone’s business. The door to freedom. The way back toward dictatorship”.
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