Freedom of Expression Under Siege - World Press Freedom ...

its statutes on 13 July 2001. This, in itself, had not been easy. Sometimes, the
authorities, which are aware of when the statutes will be deposited by a would
be association, simply block the official building’s entrance (physically) or
simply do not hand out the receipt which they should be handing out when
statutes are deposited. This is for instance the case of Raid - ATTAC Tunisia.
The authorities never handed out the receipt to them, thus preventing them
from going to court for a non-existing decision.
Within two months, the authorities informed LFW that it would not be
approved. FLW filed a complaint with the administrative tribunal in February
2004. The tribunal sent a questionnaire to LFW and to the Ministry of
Culture. The latter one gave 3 reasons for refusing to approve the LFW:
- There is already a union of Tunisian writers.
- The adjective “free” is a problem. It seems the association would exclude
writers who are not free.
- One of the articles of the statutes stipulates that the LFW would defend
writers’ interests, thus being more of a trade union than an association.
The administrative tribunal, whose decisions are not compulsory, has not
reached a final decision yet. It is not expected to do so before 2007.
Interestingly, the OLPEC was given the same reasons for not being officially
approved.
Observatory of the Freedom of the Press, Publishing and Creativity (OLPEC).
OLPEC was founded in 2001. The authorities refused to acknowledge receipt
of OLPEC’s official request for approval in 2001. OLPEC was finally given a
receipt on 3 May 2001. Within three months, the authorities, as they are
required by law, informed OLPEC that it would not be approved. The goals of
OLPEC are as follows:
- Investigate censorship of books, the press and artistic activities;
- Publish regular reports on the situation of freedom of expression;
- Issue alerts on particular cases of infringement of freedom of expression;
- Propose reforms to improve the situation of freedom of expression in
Tunisia.
OLPEC filed a complaint with the administrative tribunal in 2001. The case is
still pending. It should be noted that very often it is not even possible to file an
official complaint because the authorities did not acknowledge receipt of the
official request for approval As in the LFW case, the reasons put forward by
the Ministry of Culture in the OLPEC case are:
- Name not appropriate.
- Goals of the association broad enough for it to be a political organisation.
The Tunisian section of the Rally for an International Alternative of
Development (le Rassemblement pour une alternative internationale de
developpement, RAID-Tunisie).
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