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Tunisians Mourn a Hard-Fought Freedom Rapidly Slipping Away
When reflecting on their Arab Spring revolution, Tunisians often say that freedom of expression was the only concrete achievement. As the country slides back toward autocracy, that, too, is being quickly eroded.
Reporting from Tunis
Mosaïque FM, Tunisia’s most popular radio station, comes to life each morning around 5:30 a.m. with the martial strains of the national anthem. Next comes a voice crooning a verse from the Quran, then music and news, followed by the political show “Watch What They Say,” which has chronicled the floundering of the country’s young democracy and its recent U-turn toward autocracy.
The show’s host, Hajer Tlili, says she specializes in catching politicians out in their inconsistencies and hypocrisies. But lately, it has been Ms. Tlili who has had to consider what she says.
The director of Mosaïque, an independent station, was jailed from February to May. One of its reporters has been sentenced to five years in prison; two more have been interrogated over criticizing the government.
“Every day I’ve thought, ‘I could be next,’” said Ms. Tlili, 36. “But I’ve kept working as usual. I love my job. I can’t go back to dictatorship again.”
It was the first time she had felt that way, she said, since her earliest days in journalism, just after Tunisia overthrew its longtime dictator in 2011, inspiring a wave of uprisings across the Arab world.
That ushered in a decade-long experiment with democracy that many called the greatest achievement of the Arab Spring. Young Tunisians like Ms. Tlili flung themselves into politics, activism and media in a frothy rush of excitement, like champagne spraying.
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