The steering committee of the Tunisian Federation of Newspaper Editors (FTDJ) said in a statement issued Monday that there is “no reason” for the Assembly of People’s Representatives (ARP) to exclude journalists from private, associative and international media from the coverage of the plenary session scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday, April 11, and devoted to the discussion of the ARP’s draft rules of procedure.
The committee expressed its solidarity with the National Union of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT) and with all journalists and photographers banned from covering the plenary session except their colleagues from the public media.
The executive board of the National Union of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT) had called in a statement issued on Monday for a “boycott” of the ARP plenary session devoted to the examination of the parliament’s rules of procedure and called on all journalists to protest in front of the parliament on Tuesday, April 11.
Earlier in the day, the parliament announced that “only the public media are authorised to cover the plenary sessions starting tomorrow, Tuesday, devoted to the examination of the draft rules of procedure” and that the work of the plenary will be “broadcast live on the public television channel and on the parliament’s YouTube channel”.
The parliament also said that the public, private and foreign media will be invited to designate their representatives to cover the work of the ARP, after adopting the rules of procedure.
Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse