The Tunisian Government Starts The Propaganda By Banning A Paper And An Ad Campaign In Egyptian Papers

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, ANHRI, stated that the Tunisian government launched its public and presidential elections campaign by confiscating an issue of "Al Tariq Al Jadid" newspaper, advocating for "Mouvement Ettajdid", "revival movement", which published the election statement of the presidential nominee of the movement "Ahmed Ibrahim" (picture). The issue was ready to be distributed on 11/10/ 2009.

It seems the Tunisian press was not enough for the propaganda campaign of Ben Ali; the Tunisian government started an ad campaign in some Egyptian papers starting by the pro government daily newspaper Rose El-Youssef and "Al Mougaz" weekly.

The Tunisian ministry of interior confiscated the issue # 149 of "Al Tariq Al Jadid" on 10/10/2009 while in the print house, claiming that the election campaign has not started yet, though the start was on 11/10/2009, the paper distribution date.

The movement considers this practice as limiting and depriving of equal opportunity in election propaganda in Tunisia where Ben Ali and the ruling party dominate all pro government newspapers and media and yet impose restrictions on other nominees and opposition parties, one of the reasons that led the Tunisian progressive party to boycott elections.

Apparently, the Tunisian government has not had enough space for its settled- in- advance elections campaign, now it is advocating for Ben Ali abroad in a series of Tunisian ads for Ben Ali in Egyptian and Arabic papers, starting by the Egyptian "Rose El-Youssef" and "Al Mougaz" despite their low distribution figures.

It is expected that this ad stream will continue, in Arabic speaking papers, in the form of news and reports using the Tunisian Arabic accent revealing that this material is being edited by pro government Tunisian reporters and officials.

ANHRI stated that, "The elections charade is no longer credible, the only debatable point is the figure to be written beside Ben Ali’s name, should be 99% or 94%?"