Tunisia: Another journalist jailed

  1. Posted on Wednesday 2 December 2009 - 10:57
    KingsleyKobo
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    Kingsley Kobo, AfricaNews reporter in Abidjan, Ivory Coast
    Five days after the jailing of a Tunisian prominent journalist, another journalist was on Tuesday sentenced to three months imprisonment for publishing damaging photos without consent.
    tunisia jail
    Zouhair Makhlouf, the editor of El-Mawkif, an opposition daily for the Progressist Democratic Party, was arrested on October 21 and charged for a video report he made on the state of the environment in the industrial zone of Nabeul in northeast Tunisia, AFP said.

    The complaint was filed by a craftsman who was questioned for the report and who accused the journalist of breaking the law on publishing photos without consent.

    The court upheld the complaint that the photos were illegal and published in conditions offensive to the plaintiff's dignity.

    Makhlouf was also ordered to pay 6,000 dinars (3,100 euros) in damages.

    His lawyers claim that the plaintiff, Mourad Ladib, a potter from Naboul, had agreed to be interviewed by the journalist, before being incited to lodge a complaint.

    Several rights groups had called for charges against Makhlouf to be dropped. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said that he was the victim of a trap.

    Last week, Ben Brik, a vocal critic of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, was sentenced to six months in prison for assaulting a woman. Brik claimed he was the victim of a set-up by the country’s political police.

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