The media sector in Tunisia went on strike on September 17, the same day the trial of Mouldi Zaouabi, a veteran journalist, was still in session.

Mouldi Zaouabi, who has been a journalist for 29 years, is also a human rights activist and the founder of the International PEN Center who, together with the interim President Mohamed Moncef Marzouki, had been kidnapped several times by the police and was convicted during Ben Ali’s regime after a series of trials because of his critical writings about the regime.

The media sector in Tunisia went on strike on September 17, the same day the trial of Mouldi Zaouabi, a veteran journalist, was still in session.

Mouldi Zaouabi, who has been a journalist for 29 years, is also a human rights activist and the founder of the International PEN Center who, together with the interim President Mohamed Moncef Marzouki, had been kidnapped several times by the police and was convicted during Ben Ali’s regime after a series of trials because of his critical writings about the regime.

Very little has changed since then. Zaouabi has again been accused of similar charges and has been taken to court despite the absence of evidence to convict him.

The court case against Zaouabi, though supposedly similar to other court cases against journalists who recently went on trial— prominent journalists such as Ziad el-Heni Zuhair al-Gees— but it differs in terms of content and history. It dates back to the pre-January 14, 2011 revolution.

Cold case re-opened

Zaouabi said that he was worried although he showed a great deal of resolve in court. The lawsuit against him was filed by one of the former Democratic Constitutional Rally party members in 2010 under the pretext of violently assaulting him.

Local authorities in the Jendouba province, in the northwest of the country, allegedly wanted to punish Zaoubi for revealing, through his press reports, issues of social and economic corruption in the province. He was preparing these reports for the al-Hiwar TV station, the al-Mawqef Newspaper and the Kalima Radio (all these media outlets were opposing the regime during the Ben Ali’s rule).

Zaouabi said that he is not surprised that the lawsuit file has been reopened, although the judiciary has issued its final ruling with its regard in May 2012. “It was reopened upon a request by the public prosecution, who saw that the ruling against me (not to hear the case) is not in line with the offense committed because all those who were behind the lawsuit today occupy important positions in the province.” Moreover, one of them is the investigating judge and the other is the prosecutor and the two were promoted to these positions. There were also those who were members of the Ben Ali’s party but joined the Ennahda, today in the ruling majority in Tunisia.

“Nothing has changed after the revolution,” said Zaouabi in a confident tone. “The trials of journalists and restrictions on their freedoms will continue in Tunisia and their conditions with further deteriorate as compared to the former regime’s era.”

Staring at his cup of coffee and trying to organize his thoughts, Zaouabi said: “The opening of the case after more than a year and a half of closing it is a proof that the current government has opened a battle with the media and mainly with journalists, who knew freedom in its sense of challenge before the January 14 revolution.”   

He added that authorities wanted to send messages to the media that now enjoys a margin of freedom and feels that it is capable of preserving this gain without abandoning it under any pretext.

Continuous intimidation

Zaouabi believes that his prosecution is part of a series of trials and court cases against him. “The public prosecution is still intimidating me with other unopened files and the hearing days are not yet scheduled.”

“But those who believe that filing lawsuits against me will stop me from performing my duty as a journalist of investigating and revealing realities and the files of corruption are mistaken.” However, Zaouabi fears that the government has succeeded in presenting a distorted image of journalists and political opposition as unpatriotic. “This is very dangerous,” he said.

Marzouki befuddled the authority

In assessing the performance of his former colleague, interim Prime Minister Moncef Marzouki, who struggled alongside Zaouabi within human rights organizations and foundations and with whom he founded the International PEN Center, Zaouabi said: “Marzouki was not able to rid himself of the human rights mentality and he is unable to act as a president, in the conventional sense of the word. This has led to the isolation of the presidency from the rest of the institutions and disrupted the work of the state both at the level of coordination in stances and also at the level of performance.”   

His mixed feelings of hope and fear, which he shares with all the Tunisian people about the future of their country, Zaouabi, who has been active in the journalism field since 1984, believes that Tunisia is going through the most difficult crises in its history. While Zaouabi awaits his verdicts, Tunisia’s new judicial year has begun by prosecuting its journalists, its Constituent Assembly’s MPs are withdrawing and its government is insisting on its legitimacy despite many incidents of political murder, and the leakage of documents.

Zaouabi believes that the freedom of the media and expression are rights, which the journalists will never abandon, especially those who have tasted the bitterness of the past and have spent the best years of their careers in court.