E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSAn international rights group called Monday for Tunisian prosecutors to drop charges against two sculptors for artworks deemed harmful to public order and good morals, a legal action seen as part of a clampdown on free speech in the country where the Arab Spring began.
Human Rights Watch said that the prosecution of artists Nadia Jelassi and Mohamed Ben Salem in Tunisia, the country whose protests against its longtime dictator helped set off similar uprisings across the Arab world, violated the right to freedom of expression because the works did not incite or discriminate.
"Time and again, prosecutors are using criminal legislation to stifle critical or artistic expression," Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
"Bloggers, journalists and now artists are being prosecuted for exercising their right to free speech," he added.
Protests
The works by Jelassi and Ben Salem were exhibited in a show in La Marsa in June, according to Human Rights Watch. The two, whose mixed-media work provoked protests during the exhibition, face up to five years in prison if convicted, the rights group said.
La Marsa is a coastal town north of the capital Tunis.
Jelassi's contribution was a work titled "Celui qui n'a pas …" ("He who hasn't …"). It includes sculptures of veiled women amid a pile of stones. Ben Salem’s work showed ants coming out of a child's schoolbag to spell the word "Allah," or God, according to Human Rights Watch.
Mother of Tunisian fruit vendor who sparked Arab Spring is arrested
In addition to protests outside the center, several works of art in the exhibition reportedly were damaged.
The two artists were informed by the investigative judge of the First Degree Court of Tunis in August that they face charges, Human Rights Watch said.
Veiled female news anchor marks wane of secular Egypt
The article of the penal code under which the two artists were charged make it an offense to "distribute, offer for sale, publicly display, or possess, with the intent to distribute, sell, display for the purpose of propaganda, tracts, bulletins, and fliers, whether of foreign origin or not, that are liable to cause harm to the public order or public morals," according to Human Rights Watch.
NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin recaps Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's two-week overseas tour.
"Many Tunisians expected that repressive laws ... would not long outlast the dictator who adopted [them]," Goldstein of Human Rights Watch said.
Voice of Tunisian spring calls for justice, equality
"We now see that as long as the transitional government does not make it a priority to get rid of these laws, the temptation to use them to silence those who dissent or think differently is irresistible," he added.
More coverage of the Middle East and North Africa on NBCNews.com
Clampdown on freedom of expression
Amnesty International has also contended that freedom of expression has increasingly been under threat in Tunisia in recent months. A number of journalists, cinemas and TV stations have been fined, shut down or arrested, according to Amnesty.
Zohra Bensemra / Reuters
Click for more photos from the 2011 demonstrations against the Tunisian government.
The Arab Spring is widely considered to have begun in the central Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid, where a fruit seller's self-immolation triggered the popular uprisings against autocratic rule there and other countries in the region.
Complete World News coverage on NBCNews.com
The Tunisian uprising forced out dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011. Elections that followed brought to power Ennahda, a moderate Islamist party that had been banned under Ben Ali’s rule.
NBC News' staff and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More world stories from NBC News:
- Sun Myung Moon, founder of Unification Church, dies at 92
- Girl accused of blasphemy in Pakistan may have been framed by Muslim cleric
- 'Big enough for all of us': Clinton says US can work with China in Pacific
- Assad stays cool amid reports of bread-line slaughter
- Ex-Marine on her journey from homelessness to the Paralympics
Leave a Comment:
Free expression is not a right. It is a hard earned privilege. Once it is attained it must be guarded jealously and defended vigorously. The world is filled with those who would suppress that privilege. To allow them victory is to admit you do not deserve the privilege.
Obama showed the same abject stupidity Carter did over Iran. Carter did nothing to help the western friendly Shah and we got the current radical anti west Muslim regime instead. Now Obama has done the exact same thing. They are so alike it's frightening.
Just as Iran caused us to back Iraq and the entire region degenerated, so Obama's screw up will haunt us decades from now as his complete incompetence bears rancid fruit.
These are emerging democracies where none existed before. When the US Constitution was ratified the only people who could vote were property owning men. Books and art were still subject to bans in this country as late as the last half of the 20th century - and in some respects still are. The history of prohibition is less than a century old. It is completely unreasonable and illogical to expect these countries with no common culture or history of individual freedom to emerge as modern fully formed republics when we don't even have it right yet. They have to find their own way. I know the fact that they are muslim, there are radicals (what do we think the founders were?) that we live in a globalized world is frightening, but if anyone thought this was not going to happen, then they have little grasp of history or political development.
How do you know that? 1400 years ago there were thriving tribes and villages in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, etc, Some were probably run as democracies, that is, until the Mohammadan Arabs showed up. They came in and slaughtered, raped, pillaged, tortured and enslaved. To the survivors they gave a choice: submit or die. Today most of the Middle East is made up of the results of nearly 1400 centuries of continuous internecine warfare, fanatical brainwashing and the fear of Allah.
Know this; almost all of the Muslim world is made up of peoples whose first "Islamic" ancestors were overrun, raped and enslaved by fanatic Mohammadans out of Arabia and then forced to convert. Nobody but killers and thieves and fanatics, and sufferers of that perplexing phenomenon known as the Stockholm syndrome, would willingly join in the ranks of the suicidal killer jihadis. Islam isn't a religion, its a crime; its a criminal enterprise/death cult run by fanatic Mohammadans that intends to enslave the world as they are now enslaving the Middle East.
Enforce the Law. Padlock the mosques and free the slaves of Allah.
No surprise here. Same rules different dictator.
is this the same arab spring that obama and the liberal democrats are giving our tax dollars to
Yes.
They wanted freedom we wanted freedom for them and they got freedom. They got a repressive gov. that they wanted. Freedom means different things to different people. If they are happy let them be. Its the international rights groups that seem to think they don't have freedom. If they are unhappy they will revolt again and we can repeat the whole thing again. Look at some of the other countries that got "freedom" lin the form of a secualr government. Egypt many not have the government we wanted for them but that's what they voted for and after all isn't the vote what they were fighting for?
They never had freedom. Islam! 700 years behind the times and they want to inflict it on every human being on the planet.
An article about the arab world turns to an anti-muslim fest in the comment boards, let me put on my shocked face.
Why should it not turn into this. They have demonstrated around the world that they are incapable of governing humanely or without antique tribal regressive tactics. The last time any of these countries was under control and the people had any freedom was when they were one of a number of civilized countries colonies. that is exactly where they need to be now!
Well so what. People posting anti-obama messages on Facebook are suddenly finding themselves under investigation and threat too.
Sorry Tunisia but we are fighting for our own freedoms here.
Clearly your Obama paranoia does not allow you to remember the enemies list Nixon had on thousands of Americans. People who demonstrated peacefully in the 60's and 70's against the war in Vietnam actually had FBI agents going to their homes to have a "talk" with them.
P.S. Just wanted to let you know that my dad was a prisoner of war in a camp run by the Germans, I'm a proud American also.
You must be proud of your Dad. A true hero without dispute. However, my paranoia is backed up by now three cases of Marine vets being hauled off for questioning. Under the guise of "mental evaluation" they were taken from their home without warrant, in one case, held for two months without charges. All for comments posted on Facebook.
I guess my paranoia stems from a government fast becoming the same type your father fought against.
If they cannot have demockracy in their country. The USA will bring them to America, and nurture them until they can become a part of it. It is already being done by the hundreds of thousands. Enjoy the diversity of a new culture as it thrives beside you. No one who believes in demockracy lives under such repression.
The writing was on the wall a decade ago and it remains there still. People who think democracy will bloom in the Middle East by removing the brutal Muslim dictators who have kept the Islamic radicals and militants under control need to seriously consider removing their heads from where the sun doesn't shine. Demanding the ouster of these Muslim dictators, and supporting the "oppressed" and the "resistance fighters" will only cause radical Islam to spread farther and flourish as never before, for the Middle Eastern Muslims supporting the "oppressed" are the very same radical Muslims who will take control from them. Their caliphate is growing in size, thanks to the idiocy of western governments. Providing moral, financial and military support to them will only hasten the day when they turn their hatred and intolerance toward us and our allies in greater numbers.
Just what did the idiotic western dreamers think would happen when "moderate" Islam took the reins?
Arab spring my backside. It's a classic and brilliant move by the Islamic militants making a region-wide power grab. It appears none of the dolts at the Pentagon, Congress, the White House, or the press have ever heard of Carlos Marighella
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marighella-carlos/1969/06/minimanual-urban-guerrilla/index.htm
More infernal whitewashing from NBC and Human Rights Watch. These laws weren't "adopted." They aren't a holdover from the old regime. They are eternal. These "repressive" laws are the eternal laws of Allah: Sharia, the ultimate for freedom and human rights.
Based on the link upon which I clicked to get to this article, I thought it was about criticism of the CIA.
I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
by Pete Townsend
The silence of the United States Government on these issues are deafening! In Iraq the government has outlawed unions and strikes by workers and have silenced any opposition media. So, where is that bastion of democracy that continually howls like a dog about human rights and freedom. Shhh, not a word, not one word of criticism from the US. Why?? Because the United States can care less about human rights for all it's talk, condemnations and white papers. What it all boils down to is, as long as the governments of these so called Arab Spring countries toe the line as puppet governments and adherer's to United States rules of hegemony and do not hinder the robbing and looting of US multi national corporations, human rights are of no importance.
The United States at any time can surely force the Iraq government to reverse the oppressive laws on Unions and workers rights but CHOOSE not to do so. Making the United States the biggest hypocrite and phoney on the planet. Human rights to the United States is a propaganda slogan and way to mislead the American Citizen while conducting it's imperialist military adventures for profit.
Thanks for your grateful <a href=" students News </a> informations.
Remember the wise words in a song by Pete Townshend: "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." One form of autocratic, repressive gov't was replaced with another. The difference is between secular dictatorship vs religious dictatorship. Islamists are determined to return their countries to the 8th century. Why is ANYBODY surprised by this? Even the CIA and NSA are clueless. Didn't they learn anything from the Mujahideen wars against the Soviets in Afghanistan? How we supported them in Charlie's War, then they turned their weapons against the West? Politicians have such short memories, and seem to learn nothing.
I'm not sure whether I should laugh or feel sympathy for some of you, maybe both.
It's a cliche, but there really is a lot of ignorance in many of these posts. If you cannot understand what a moderate islamist is then you honeslty shouldn't even be posting here. Not all Islamists are the same, and not all muslims are the same, as with any religion or following.
Democracy is not the same everywhere, your idea of democracy differs from others. Different doesn't make it wrong.
Two words you cannot use together in the same sentence in any language: Freedom and Islam. But then, I can't think of anything good to say about most religions out there anyway. Well, truthfully, religion was created in an effort to control the masses. And even though the concept is well intended, man always manages to twist and manipulate it like any form of power over other people.
Those people are pathetic. Really, did they really think that the hard line Crazed Muslims would let that stand? Not in their life time.
Crazed Muslim ? Please do not use double-negatives LOL
Inadvertently- news reach the US shores very late. If you are a tourist in Tunisia- the very same place where the Arab Spring sparked its first gleam- in Sidi Bouzid- the charred remnants of the Guiding Light bode not so well. Ther extreme Salafists (the greatest number in Sidi Bouzid) just attacked the Hotel Horchani raiding the last working bart- smashing bottles-barging in convention halls- bearded men raided upstairs rooms. Sale of alcohol is regulated and legal in Tunisia but Salafists are calling 'Al-Saharab haram'(drinking is a sin)- the 50+ bearded possedid not kill anyone this time- but the many foreigners (lFrench tourisyts like Tunisia) are now advised of the true meaning of the Arab Spring's aftermath- 'at your own risk- infidels not welcome'. Invasion of the Bearded Fanatical Jihadist/Salafist'
the more I read and learn about the whole of the Muslim world, the more I see how effed it is.
Ron Paul is right: Stop spending American money there, Stop Regime building, Stop American deaths in foreign conflicts, Stop rebuilding one country after another just to have it torn down or ruled by those that HATE us.
Turn it into a glass parking lot with a super walmart (in about 1,000 years)
...