In Tunisia, press freedom erodes amid security fears - Committee to Prot... 5 of 21 https://cpj.org/reports/2015/10/in-tunisia-press-freedom-erodes-amid-sec... ● Tunisian blogger Yassine Ayari, pictured at his home in Tunis in April, was jailed for criticizing the defense minister. (AFP/Fethi Belaid) In an example that dates to before the current government, Mourad Meherzi, a photographer for the online television channel Astrolabe, was arrested in 2013 for videotaping a �lm director, Nasreddine Shili, throwing eggs at Mehdi Mabrouk, the Tunisian minister of culture. He was charged with “conspiring to commit violence against a government o�cial” under the penal code, which calls for up to �ve years’ imprisonment. He was released and charges were dropped a few weeks later. Authorities have also used terrorism-related charges to punish journalists for their reporting and pressure them to reveal their sources, according to CPJ research. Noureddine Mbarki, editor of the digital newspaper Akher Khabar Online, was charged under the 2003 anti-terrorism law with complicity in the attack on Sousse beach in June that killed 39 tourists, marking the �rst time a Tunisian journalist faced terrorism charges since the 2011 revolution. Mbarki had published a photo showing the car that purportedly transported the gunman. Mbarki told CPJ that he deleted the photograph on the request of the Interior Ministry, only to be summoned to Laouina 1/27/2025, 12:23 PM