Judicial organizations criticize Tunis's hosting of the second media summit

Judicial groups accused Tunisia of practicing torture and considered it as a venue which is not suitable for hosting a summit on the media due to be held in November under the auspices of the UN.

"International Freedom of Expression Exchange Tunisia Monitoring Group" which fights for the freedom of the press said in a report that Tunisia monitors the press, prevents the access to Internet sites, jail persons because of their views or media activities and embarks on torture as practice.

Meantime, deputy chairman of the Tunisian league in defense of human rights Suheir Balhasan said following the circulation of a report in Geneva on press restrictions in Tunisia that convening a summit about media in Tunisia is like convening a summit about the environment in a station for nuclear energy. The "world summit for information society" which is supported by the UN aims at bridging the gap between the poor and rich countries and to help in settling areas of disputes.

Balhasan called on Tunisia to improve its application of criterion on agreed internationally for the freedom of expression and other human rights criterion, should it want to organize the world summit for information technology.

During the first meeting of the world summit in December 2003, Tunisia was the target for hard criticism for hosting the second and last meeting of the summit because of its records in the area of human rights.

The organization demanded the Tunisian authorities to end the harassments and attacks against human rights activists and political activists including journalist Abdullah Zewari who started hunger strike after his displacement into a remote village after he had spent 11 year in jail.