Tunisian authorities have ordered the suspension of Nawaat, a prominent independent media outlet known for investigating corruption and human rights abuses.
The one-month suspension is part of a broader crackdown on free speech and civil society, with authorities citing financial audits linked to foreign funding as justification.
Critics argue the real aim is to silence dissenting voices, eroding press freedom gains made since the 2011 revolution that toppled longtime ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
The National Union of Tunisian Journalists condemned the suspension as a “dangerous escalation in efforts to muzzle independent journalism under an administrative guise”. Since President Kais Saied started ruling by decree in 2021, at least a dozen political activists have been imprisoned, several NGOs have reported frozen bank accounts, and at least five journalists have been jailed. Nawaat has vowed not to be “intimidated by the current political climate or campaigns of defamation”.
