Tunesien: Zehn Jahre Ausnahmezustand

Vor zehn Jahren wurde in Tunesien der Ausnahmezustand verhängt und seitdem werden sukzessive Menschen- und Freiheitsrechte eingeschränkt, Oppositionelle in absurden Verfahren zu langen Haftstrafen verurteilt und vom Aufbruch nach 2011 ist nichts geblieben, außer einem zunehmend autokratisch regierenden paranoiden Präsidenten, dem außer Repression nichts gelingt. Das Land befindet sich seit Jahren in einer tiefen wirtschaftlichen Krise, auch wenn jüngste Daten von einem minimalen Wachstum ausgehen, und vor allem unter der jüngeren Bevölkerung herrscht Perspektivlosigkeit und der Wunsch, das Land zu verlassen.

Über die Auswirkungen des Ausnahmezustandes berichtet der New Arab:

Under the emergency framework, the Interior Ministry holds broad powers to ban public gatherings, impose curfews, conduct searches of shops and homes, and monitor the press, radio broadcasts, cinema and theatre productions, all without prior judicial authorisation.

The measures were first introduced after a suicide bombing on 24 November 2015 that targeted a bus carrying members of the presidential guard through central Tunis. 12 security officers and the attacker were killed, and 16 others, both security personnel and civilians, were wounded in the attack, which the Islamic State group later claimed.

More than 10 years later, the emergency remains in force, and its repeated renewals have transformed it from a temporary measure into a permanent feature of governance.

Tunisia's state of emergency is not a legal formality. The decree governing it dates back to 26 January 1978, and allows the president to declare emergency rule for renewable periods of up to 30 days.

Rights organisations, both domestic and international, have warned for years that the framework falls short of safeguards required under international human rights law, particularly given its indefinite extension.

The UN Human Rights Committee has repeatedly raised concerns that Tunisia's state of emergency risks exceeding the standards that permit such measures in exceptional crises. And since Saied's consolidation of power beginning in July 2021, opposition forces fear the emergency is being used against those who reject his rule. (...)

Concerns over the prolonged use of emergency powers have also extended to their broader impact on media freedom. In the 2025 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Tunisia ranked 129th globally, down from 118th in 2024 and 121st in 2023, after leading the Arab region in 2021.

Ziad Dabbar, head of the Tunisian Journalists' Syndicate, warned that the persistence of emergency governance risks entrenching a restrictive legal environment for journalists, particularly amid Tunisia's post-2021 political transformation.

"Since the adoption of the new constitution and the restructuring of political institutions, there is a real fear that Tunisia could move towards scenarios seen elsewhere in the region," Dabbar said, referring to Egypt's prolonged state of emergency, which remained in force for more than two decades and was used to restrict journalistic work, including freedom of movement and access to information.

Dabbar stressed, however, that emergency legislation is not always the primary legal instrument used against journalists in practice. Instead, he said, authorities increasingly rely on a combination of overlapping laws.

"The current authorities apply Decree-Law 54, the Telecommunications Code dating back to the Ben Ali era, anti-terrorism legislation, and provisions of the penal code against journalists, rather than the press law established under Decree 115," he said.

He added that the continued reliance on older legal frameworks reflects a broader pattern of legal continuity, warning that emergency powers, even when not directly invoked, remain available as a theoretical tool to restrict journalistic activity.