Tunisian journalists on strike to protest pressures

TUNIS: Tunisian journalists went on strike Tuesday to protest pressures imposed on them by the authorities, after a reporter was arrested for accusing the public prosecutor of fabricating evidence against a cameraman.
The country’s newspapers all ran with headlines announcing the strike. “Tunisian journalists are sick and tired, but they are not giving up,” Le Temps announced on its front page, with Le Quotidien proclaiming that “The battle for freedom of expression rages.” “They can stifle freedom, they can restore the rule of terror insidiously, but the warning shots of revolt will be heard,” warned La Presse. Radio stations only broadcast information related to the general strike, as requested by the national journalists union, which called the industrial action, only the second in its history. “Tunisian journalists are observing a general strike on Tuesday... called by the national union of Tunisian journalists (SNJT). This strike was agreed on following the arrest of our colleague Zied el-Heni,” said RTCI radio.
The official TAP news agency also said it would offer a “minimum service, only covering events of extreme importance.”
Striking journalists are expected to gather outside the SNJT headquarters in the capital at 1300 GMT.
Heni was placed in pre-trial detention on Friday for accusing the public prosecutor of fabricating evidence implicating cameraman Mourad Meherzi in an egg-throwing attack on a minister last month.