In Tunisia, press freedom erodes amid security fears - Committee to Prot... 7 of 21 https://cpj.org/reports/2015/10/in-tunisia-press-freedom-erodes-amid-sec... ● Protesters outside a military court in Tunis call for the release of Yassine Ayari. The blogger was released early after international calls for authorities to free him. (AFP/Fethi Belaid) Two other legislative moves by the government have raised concern. The �rst is its withdrawal on July 3 of the draft Fundamental Law on the Right of Access to Information, which had been crafted and lobbied for by civil society groups and was awaiting �nal approval by parliament. The act was meant to facilitate constitutional guarantees of “the right to information and the right of access to information and communication networks.” The government did not provide a reason for its abrupt withdrawal. The second is the government’s introduction on April 10 of a draft bill, named “Repression of Offences against Armed Forces,” which criminalizes “denigration” of police or other security forces. The law carries a sentence of 10-year imprisonment and a �ne of about US$25,000 for people found guilty of exposing “national security secrets.” “Investigative journalists [will be] the �rst victims of this law,” said journalist Zied El-Heni. Neji Bghouri, the head of the Tunisian journalists’ union, told CPJ he had received messages from the government assuring him that the Armed Forces bill would be dropped. The prime minister’s o�ce told CPJ in July that withdrawal of the bill was “under discussion” and declined to comment further. The spokesman did not respond to CPJ’s more recent inquiries. “We have su�cient legal texts to confront terrorist threats. The real protection [from terrorism] is in providing legal texts that guarantee 1/27/2025, 12:23 PM