{"id":67995,"date":"2026-09-03T18:36:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T18:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/?p=67995"},"modified":"2026-09-03T18:36:40","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T18:36:40","slug":"tunisia-from-the-water-crisis-to-protests-rsf-warns-of-obstacles-to-journalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/tunisia-from-the-water-crisis-to-protests-rsf-warns-of-obstacles-to-journalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Tunisia: From the water crisis to protests, RSF warns of obstacles to journalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Press Freedom Monitoring Desk Islamabad <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In July and August 2026, several journalists were prevented, restricted or intimidated while covering matters of public interest, notably protests and the crisis over access to water and electricity. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns the growing number of obstacles to the work of journalists covering these issues in Tunisia. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The organisation calls on authorities to guarantee the free practice of journalism as well as the public’s right to information.<\/p>\n

Tunisia ranks 137th out of 180 countries and territories in RSF’s 2026 World Press Freedom Index.<\/p>\n

On 26 August, two journalists from the Tunis bureau of Qatari channel Al Jazeera \u2013 which has been closed without judicial decision since 26 July, 2021 \u2013 Mahmoud El Majdoub and Ahmed Ayari, were detained in Rad\u00e8s, in the southern suburbs of the capital, while covering the bottled water crisis, which was causing crowds to gatheri outside a supermarket to buy drinking water.<\/p>\n

After questioning, the journalists were forced to delete photos from their report and sign a statement prohibiting them from filming and taking photographs in the area without prior authorisation from the relevant police station chief.<\/p>\n

This incident reveals an increasingly common practice also documented by the National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT) in its July monitoring report. The authorities are increasingly demanding additional accreditations from journalists who already hold their professional cards and a mission order.<\/p>\n

On July 7, in Hammamet, in the northeast of the country, a police officer asked Radio IFM correspondent Montassar Sassi for his authorisation despite having presented his professional card, while he was covering a protest rally of independent taxi drivers.<\/p>\n

A few days later, on 13 July, in the Bab Alioua neighborhood in Tunis, photojournalist Nidal Sliti from news site Carthage Today was denied access to a demonstration \u2014 also by independent taxi drivers \u2014 because he did not have government authorisation. In both cases, intervention from the Interior Ministry’s crisis cell ultimately allowed the journalists to continue their work.<\/p>\n

Pak Tunisia Trade Remains Modest : Khalid Mehmood | It is Time to Promote Economic Cooperation : Mushahid Hussain | Olive Oil Trade can be Leveraged : Cd,A Maaroufi<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n