African Journalists Protest Attacks against Union leader in Tunisia

The Federation of African Journalists (FAJ), the African Regional Organisation of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), has expressed its strongest protest against the attack and intimidation against Zied Elheni, member of FAJ Steering Committee and the executive board of National Union of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT), an affiliate of FAJ.

Zied Elheni was attacked and beaten by a man on Thursday, 15 October 2009, around 18:30 local time in Tunis. The blog of Zied was shutdown. He was also intimidated and treated disrespectfully at the airport as he came back from IFJ regional conference in Amman.

“FAJ firmly condemn this attack against Zied Elheni and broader systematic repression of journalists in Tunisia. We believe that Zied was victimized because of his defense of freedom of expression and trade union democracy. This intimidation and attack constitutes serious breach of international standards of freedom of expression and freedom of association”, said Omar Faruk Osman, FAJ President.

“On behalf of African journalists, we express our solidarity with the Tunisian journalists who stand to defend their unchallengeable democratic rights. We demand that Tunisian government respects and ensures fundamental rights of journalists and their syndicate in Tunisia”, Omar Faruk added.

For more information contact the IFJ at + 221 33 867 95 87 The IFJ represents over 600,000 journalists in 123 countries worldwide

http://africa.ifj.org/en/articles/african-journalists-protest-attacks-against-union-leader-in-tunisia