Tunisia: parliament allows media coverage of public sessions

The Speaker of the Tunisian Parliament announced yesterday that it will allow full media coverage of its public sessions, which were previously limited to government media only, Anadolu has reported.

“It has been decided to enable representatives of public and private media, as well as accredited Arab and foreign press correspondents in Tunisia, to cover parliamentary sessions from tomorrow, Wednesday, until the internal regulations of the Council are ratified,” explained Speaker Ibrahim Boudrabbala. “We support media freedom and consider it an achievement of the 2011 revolution that cannot be reversed. The public must receive accurate information to know the legislative council’s activities.”

In response to this decision, the National Union of Tunisian Journalists said that it “has fully assumed its responsibility in defending the constitutional right of journalists and media outlets to access Parliament.” The union pointed out that it led a campaign in this regard. “This culminated in the approval of open coverage of the Council’s sessions.”

READ: Tunisia groups slam state’s attack on freedom of press

Earlier on Tuesday, dozens of Tunisian journalists protested in front of the parliament building, objecting to the decision to prevent local and foreign journalists from covering sessions. Boudrabbala had announced on Monday that coverage of the parliamentary sessions by private and foreign media representatives was banned, restricting live television broadcasting to government television and the parliament channel on YouTube.

The union considered that decision to be a “clear violation” of the Tunisian constitution and “a continuation of the policy of obscurantism previously adopted by the executive authority and currently being implemented by the legislative authority.”