30

Tunis, Tunisia – A leading human rights group has slammed the use of a Tunisian law criminalising the spreading of “fake news” to stifle free speech in the country.

The Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has criticised the implementation of the legislation, issued directly by President Kais Saied following his 2021 suspension of parliament, which they claim allows him to criminalise any type of electronic communication that he objects to.

Decree 54, issued by President Kais Saied in September 2022, criminalises using electronic equipment to share false information, part of what his supporters have viewed as an important push against attempts to deceive the public.

However, since its introduction, the decree has been utilised to target a number of Saied’s opponents and critics, with several currently in prison as a result.

The principal focus of the ICJ’s criticism is Article 24 of the decree, allowing up to five years imprisonment and a fine of up to $15,000 for anyone found to be spreading “false information and rumours” online. Critically, that sentence doubles if the offending statement is made about a state official.

However, critics have pointed out that by failing to define precisely what constitutes false information or rumour, the decree has gifted lawmakers an easy tool with which to penalise critical speech.

Other provisions allowed for the security services to search telecommunication devices or computers for material considered to be in breach of the Decree and for devices to be seized and data intercepted if authorities believed there was probable cause.

mediabiasfactcheck.com/al-jazeera/

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Ab_intra@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Really sad what happened in that country. They where on the path of democracy but ended up with an autocratic once more.

this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2023
30 points (100.0% liked)

World News

39129 readers
725 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS