In Tunisia, at least four journalists and commentators sentenced to prison over the last year remain free, trying to work and carry on with their daily lives while knowing they could be arrested and taken into custody. Two others are in exile, unable to return home without risking imprisonment. Whether they will eventually be forced to join
three other journalists
who are currently behind bars in Tunisia —
Zied el-Heni
,
Mourad Zghidi
, and
Borhen Bsaies
— remains unclear.
The use of prison sentences against journalists represents part of a broader deterioration in press freedom in Tunisia under President Kais Saied. Once regarded as a beacon of press freedom in the Arab world following its
2011 revolution
, the country has taken an increasingly authoritarian turn, particularly since Saied’s
July 2021 power grab
. Independent journalism has been among the most visible casualties, as authorities have expanded their censorship tactics through arrests, criminal prosecutions, and
increasingly harsh
prison sentences targeting journalists and commentators for their work.
As these restrictions deepen, new forms of pressure continue to emerge, as journalists do not necessarily have to be behind bars to be silenced. Today, a growing number remain physically free while
being handed
prison sentences,
convictions in absentia
, or
prolonged judicial harassment
that leave them under the constant threat of arrest.
For these journalists, the distinction between freedom and imprisonment is increasingly blurred. Ziad Debbar, president of the trade union the National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT), described the phenomenon to CPJ as
“deferred imprisonment”
:
Journalists may remain outside prison, but the possibility of losing their liberty becomes part of their everyday reality. It’s a form of intimidation aimed at keeping them in a constant state of fear, he said.
“Press freedom cannot be reduced to freedom of movement or whether a journalist is
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