Tunis – Rights groups in Tunisia are “raising the alarm” after authorities temporarily suspended the activities of several NGOs in recent weeks, the Tunisian League for Human Rights (LTDH) said Tuesday.
NGOs have warned they are facing a campaign of intimidation and say freedoms in the country have regressed since President Kais Saied staged a sweeping power grab in 2021, with many of his critics currently behind bars.
LTDH head Bassem Trifi told a press conference in Tunis that recent suspensions were part of “a policy aiming to dismantle the Tunisian civil society and silence independent voices”.
He said the groups targeted were “not opposition parties” but worked on “a range of human rights and social issues”.
Two of the country’s best-known organisations, the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights (FTDES) and the Association of Democratic Women (ATFD), were targeted.
The World Organisation Against Torture’s (OMCT) office in Tunisia was also suspended.
Independent media outlets Inkyfada and Nawaat were also temporarily suspended, according to the National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT).
A source told AFP on condition of anonymity that, as of the beginning of November, at least 17 NGOs had received month-long suspension orders since the summer.
Zied Dabbar, head of the SNJT, said the suspensions came as part of a “terrifying spread of hate speech against opponents” in Tunisia, adding that Nawaat and Inkyfada’s “editorial lines disturbed the authorities”.
“We can’t talk about this issue in isolation from the broader political context in which some parties, organisations, and intermediary bodies are targeted,” Dabbar said.
The SNJT last month warned against “mounting censorship” and an “unprecedented rise in threats” against press freedom in Tunisia.
Since Tunisia’s 2011 revolution, the issue of NGO funding has been a recurring topic of public debate.
Saied has regularly accused NGOs of receiving suspicious funds, speaking of “huge sums” sent from abroad, which he has called “blatant interference” in Tunisia’s affairs.
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Source: AFP
