TUNISIAN police on Tuesday clashed with journalists at the state news agency demonstrating against a new chief executive whose appointment they see as an attempt to undermine editorial independence.
Dozens of protesting journalists had gathered in front of Tunis Afrique Presse’s (TAP) headquarters to try to stop Kamel Ben Younes from entering, but police later forced a way in.
“TAP is free and police must go,” the journalists chanted.
Protesting journalists say Ben Younes is too close to the moderate Islamist Ennahda, the biggest party in parliament. They accuse him of backing moves to control the press before the 2011 revolution brought democracy.
He has denied both charges, saying he is a political independent and pointing to his past work as a journalist with several outlets, including the BBC.
Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, whose government needs Ennahda’s parliamentary backing to survive, has described the appointment of Ben Younes as a
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