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Former Tunisian president blocked from appearing on TV

September 15, 2016 at 2:40 pm

An interview with former Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki was blocked from being aired after it was expected to be broadcast on Tunisia’s Channel 9 yesterday.

Marzouki, head of the People’s Movement of Citizens Party (PMCP), called on Channel 9 to bear full responsibility for succumbing to pressures to not broadcast his television appearance, stating that Channel 9 should not have buckled to pressure in order to “avoid passage of such a dangerous precedent which brings us back to the dark chapters of history of the media system in this country.”

“I could not believe that they could prevent the former president of the republic [from expressing] an opinion on the problems that have doomed this theoretically democratic country…that [had overthrown] the tyranny of severe suppression and freedom of opinion”, Marzouki commented on his Facebook page.

Adnen Manser, the secretary-general of the PMCP, held a press conference earlier today supporting press freedoms. “The battle for freedom of expression is a battle we will fight until the end. It is an essential element at the heart of the democratic process.”

Manser also blamed political pressures emanating from the president’s office, accusing President Beji Caid Essebsi’s staff of blocking the broadcast “with all their strengths and tyranny” and for targeting media freedom.

“We call on political parties, trade unions, press occupations and civil society organisations to announce their explicit positions on this serious transgression”, Manser told reporters.

Last month, Essebsi signed a document on the “declaration of media freedom in the Arab world” that was witnessed by a number of prominent diplomats and organisations. The 16-page document recognised press independence as a fundamental pillar in building a democratic and pluralistic society, where pluralism and diversity in the media sector is protected.

However the move to block Marzouki’s media presence has now raised serious questions about Tunisia’s democratic standing and its adherence to media freedoms.