The arrest and detention of human-rights activist Zouheir Makhlouf is – according to Malcolm Grant, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Director – the latest manifestation of the Tunisian government’s repression of free speech. Makhlouf has been charged with “harming or disturbing others via the public telecommunications networks” for producing a short film about pollution and social problems in the provincial town of Nabeul. The film was subsequently posted on Facebook.

Makhlouf was arrested on 20 October and will remain in custody until his next court hearing on 24 November. Amnesty International has expressed concern over lack of procedural fairness in this affair. Evidence shows that witnesses have been pressured by the Tunisian government to testify against Mr Makhlouf, and that those who were willing to testify in his favour now fear to do so.

For his first court hearing on 3 November, journalists and human rights defenders were denied entry to the courtroom and security officials used violence against them. Makhlouf is currently on hunger strike, and if found guilty, could be imprisoned for two years. He is being treated as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.

Makhlouf’s detention is another episode in Tunisia’s rocky road to reform. Capital Punishment has been informally abolished and women officially have complete equal rights. President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali released, under a presidential pardon, sixty eight prisoners on 6 November to mark the 22nd anniversary of the “medical coup” of 1987 in which he took power from the independence leader Habib Bourguiba. These prisoners were protestors who had been arrested following the Gafsa protests in early 2008. The release has been welcomed by Amnesty International.

However, freedom of expression is limited with regards to opposition groups. Elections, including the presidential election of last month, are largely seen as farcical. Tight restrictions on the media are a fact of life, and prosecutions of journalists for their work on seemingly unrelated charges are not uncommon.  The communist linked group Ettajdid, for example, is particularly targeted by the state’s security forces and state controlled media.