Friday, 25 April 2025
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** Tunisia’s Spring is over
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It was the event that started the Arab Spring: in December 2010, a 26-year-old Tunisian street vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi fatally set himself alight in an act of despair against state corruption and brutality. This ignited a wave of popular uprisings across the region (pictured above). At Index we documented closely what happened next and we saw how it was a mixed picture, including in Tunisia. Index’s regional editor for Northern Africa at the time, Afef Abrougui, reported in 2012 ([link removed]) on the country’s democratic transition being “in jeopardy” and freedom of expression being “under attack”. Still, for many years, hope remained that the darkest days were behind Tunisians. The country was hailed a rare, if imperfect, success of the Arab Spring. Today, sadly, no such praise can be given.
At the weekend, a Tunisian court handed down extreme prison sentences ([link removed]) to opposition figures in a mass trial. According to their lawyer, the businessman Kamel Eltaïef was given 66 years and opposition politician Khayyām Turkī was given 48. It was another indication of President Kais Saied’s increasingly authoritarian rule.
Saied, a constitutional law professor who was democratically elected in 2019, initiated a self-coup in 2021, which ended ([link removed]) Tunisia’s decade of democratic gains. He went on to fire nearly all government ministers, suspend parliament, create a new constitution, dissolve the independent supreme judicial council and sack dozens of judges. In addition to his political opponents, civil society and the media have since found themselves increasingly censored, though the victims extend beyond these usual targets: last year, officials from the Tunisian swimming federation were arrested for allegedly plotting against state security ([link removed]) . Their crime? Not displaying the national flag at a competition.
At the end of 2024, Saied secured a second five-year term in office, receiving 90.7% of the vote, an easy win when the bulk of the opposition are either barred from participating or behind bars.
Despite this, many remain committed to democratic values, as was clear last September when thousands marched ([link removed]) through the streets of Tunis to demand an end to Saied’s rule. And it’s not just on the streets that people are making their voices heard. In the latest issue of Index, we spoke to ([link removed]) three artists whose recent works push back against Saied’s control. All of them admitted that it wasn’t easy but they are fully committed to creating art. “We need to keep speaking up,” said one.
We too need to keep speaking up – for Eltaïef, for Turkī and for all the others who continue to be punished for daring to dissent.
Jemimah Steinfeld
CEO, Index on Censorship
** More from Index
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RFK Jr could be a disaster for American healthcare ([link removed])
The USA’s health secretary is known for believing in conspiracy theories ([link removed])
From Algeria to Venezuela: The week in free expression ([link removed])
A round-up of the key stories covering censorship and free expression from the past seven days ([link removed])
Index interviews the “bookseller of Jerusalem” ([link removed])
Mahmoud Muna talks about the raids on his shop and the crackdown on literary free expression ([link removed])
Announcing Index on Censorship’s latest magazine: The forgotten patients ([link removed])
Lost voices in the global healthcare system ([link removed])
When trade wars become culture wars ([link removed])
Sir Keir Starmer is under pressure to repeal hate speech laws to secure a favourable US trade deal ([link removed])
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** LAST CHANCE: Left Speechless panel and magazine launch
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Join Index on Censorship at The Frontline Club in London on Monday 28 April for a panel discussion on the psychological toll of living in a warzone and the impact this can have on individuals' speech.
The event will launch our latest magazine issue, The forgotten patients.
REGISTER ([link removed])
** From elsewhere
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**
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** >> UKRAINE: ([link removed]) [link removed] of journalist Victoria Roshchyna finally returned by Russia
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** >> AZERBAIJAN: ([link removed]) [link removed] and partners call for release of journalist Avaz Zeynalli ([link removed])
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** >> RUSSIA: ([link removed]) [link removed] Ekaterina Barabash on the run after escaping house arrest ([link removed])
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** >> GLOBAL: ([link removed]) [link removed] of jailed writers reaches new high of 375 ([link removed])
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** >> USA: ([link removed]) 100 human rights harms in 100 days of Donald Trump ([link removed])
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** Flashback
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Spying for Shakespeare ([link removed])
by Ariel Dorfman ([link removed])
Index on Censorship, volume 46, issue 4 ([link removed])
St George’s Day, celebrated on 23 April, is also the anniversary of the birth (and death) of William Shakespeare.
Back in 2017, the award-winning author Ariel Dorfman wrote an exclusive short story for Index looking at how the greatest writer in the English language could have met Miguel de Cervantes, Spain’s most celebrated scribe. The story turns into a mini spy thriller. Read the story here. ([link removed])
** Support our work
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The world is becoming more authoritarian and our work calling for the protection of journalists and promoting freedom of expression in countries such as Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Russia has never been more important.
By supporting Index on Censorship today, you can help us in our work with censored artists, jailed musicians, journalists under threat and dissidents facing torture or worse.
Please donate today ([link removed])
Photos by: (Tunisia) Nasser Nouri, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0; (Shakespeare and Cervantes) Alex Green
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