HuMENA for Human Rights and Civic Engagement condemns the ruling issued on the evening of Thursday, 7 May 2026, by the Criminal Chamber of the Tunis Court of First Instance, sentencing journalist Zied El Heni to one year in prison under Article 86 of the Telecommunications Code. The case relates to an expert media intervention and a social media post in which El Heni criticized a judicial decision in the case of fellow journalist Khalifa Guesmi. HuMENA considers this ruling to be an example of the use of general criminal provisions to criminalize legitimate journalistic expression, outside the specific legal framework established by Tunisian law since 2011 to regulate the relationship between public authorities and journalistic work.
The ruling was issued on the same day that United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called on the Tunisian authorities to “end their pattern of increasing repression against civil society organizations, journalists, human rights defenders, political opponents, activists and members of the judiciary, through criminal proceedings and administrative obstacles.” This timing reflects growing international concern over civic and media freedoms in Tunisia.
The case of Zied El Heni does not stand in isolation. Over the past four weeks, the Tunisian authorities have suspended the activities of the Tunisian League for Human Rights, recipient of the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize, and Avocats Sans Frontières / Lawyers Without Borders; the Presidency of the Government has filed a request to dissolve Al Khatt Association, which manages the independent media platform Inkyfada; and prison sentences have been issued against journalists Ghassen Ben Khalifa, two years, and Sonia Dahmani, 18 months, in addition to earlier convictions against journalists Mourad Zeghidi and Borhen Bsaies. These successive measures reveal an accumulating pattern of redrawing the relationship between the state, independent media, and human rights organizations through interlinked judicial, administrative, and financial pressure. This deterioration is also reflected in Tunisia’s ranking of 137 out of 180 countries in the 2026 Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index.
Several procedural violations have been recorded in this case. The detention order against El Heni was issued on Sunday, 26 April 2026, outside normal judicial working hours. Journalists were prevented from entering the Tunis courthouse to cover the public hearing held on 30 April; his daughter was denied access to the hearing; his lawyer’s pleadings were interrupted during the session; and the Prosecutor of the Republic refused to meet with the President of the National Union of Tunisian Journalists, who had come to inquire about the reasons journalists were barred from attending. These violations undermine fair trial guarantees and the principle of public hearings, regardless of the substance of the verdict.
HuMENA recalls that the authorities refused to apply Decree-Law No. 115 and instead relied on Article 86 of the Telecommunications Code, a provision intended to protect public communications networks, not to regulate journalistic work. Decree-Law No. 115 of 2011 remains the specific legal framework applicable to cases involving journalistic expression, in accordance with the principle that specific legal provisions prevail over general ones. The increasing reliance on Article 86 also intersects with the parallel use of Decree-Law No. 54 of 2022, whose vague formulations, including “false information” and “rumors,” allow criminal liability to be expanded to cover legitimate journalistic expression.
HuMENA further recalls that Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Tunisia is a State Party, protects criticism directed at public authorities, including the judiciary. General Comment No. 34 of the Human Rights Committee also makes clear that imprisonment should not be a routine response to expression-related cases. The prosecution of El Heni for criticizing a judicial decision raises an additional concern regarding judicial independence itself, as the judiciary has been drawn into the prosecution of expressive conduct whose subject matter was a judicial practice in a case that had attracted significant public attention.
This case intersects with a broader pattern of judicial decisions and administrative measures in Tunisia, including the death sentence issued in October 2025 in relation to Facebook posts, the prolonged detention of human rights defenders in cases related to migration and economic and social rights, and the prosecution of lawyers and judges in connection with their professional activities. Tunisia’s current trajectory also forms part of a wider regional pattern across the Middle East and North Africa, where general criminal provisions, including cybercrime laws, counterterrorism legislation, and broadly framed provisions on “harm to others,” are used to criminalize legitimate expression outside the specific legal protections guaranteed by constitutional and international standards for journalistic work.
HuMENA calls on the Tunisian authorities to:
- Immediately and unconditionally release journalist Zied El Heni and annul the verdict issued against him.
- Cease the use of Article 86 of the Telecommunications Code and Decree-Law No. 54 of 2022 in cases involving journalistic expression, and comply with Decree-Law No. 115 of 2011 as the applicable specific legal framework.
- Immediately lift the suspension imposed on the Tunisian League for Human Rights and Avocats Sans Frontières / Lawyers Without Borders, and halt the proceedings to dissolve Al Khatt Association.
- Guarantee the public nature of hearings in cases involving opinion and press freedoms, and ensure the right of journalists, observers, and family members of the accused to attend.
- Review Decree-Law No. 54 of 2022 to ensure precise legal drafting and abolish custodial penalties in expression-related cases, in line with Tunisia’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The continued use of Article 86 of the Telecommunications Code and Decree-Law No. 54 of 2022 to criminalize legitimate journalistic expression, outside the specific legal framework established by Tunisian law, entrenches a legal environment that restricts criticism, weakens public accountability, and violates Tunisia’s constitutional and international obligations. This trajectory requires a clear response from United Nations mechanisms, including during the 61st session of the Human Rights Council in June 2026, as well as from the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and its special mechanisms on freedom of expression and human rights defenders.
