"It's a warning shot aimed at the very idea of independent civic life. The silencing of a revolutionary media outlet Instead, the Decree, once seen as a safeguard for civic freedom, is now being weaponized as a tool of control. Nawaat's team describes the action as part of a broader campaign of harassment: tax audits, financial investigations, and administrative interrogations that together amount to an attempt to "stifle all media resistance to the dictatorship.""
"Bureaucratic authoritarianism What's happening in Tunisia is not an isolated episode. Across the region, governments have refined the art of silencing dissent without firing a shot. But whether through Egypt's , Morocco's , or Algeria's foreign-funding restrictions , the outcome is the same: fewer independent outlets, and fewer critical voices. These are the tools of bureaucratic authoritarianism...the punishment is quiet, plausible, and difficult to contest."
Tunisian authorities suspended Nawaat on October 31 under Decree-Law 2011-88 without formal notice, presenting the action as administrative. The suspension functions as a warning to independent civic life and forms part of a broader campaign including tax audits, financial investigations, and administrative interrogations aimed at stifling media resistance. Similar bureaucratic tools and foreign-funding restrictions across the region produce fewer independent outlets and fewer critical voices. Such measures erode the rule of law and inflict concrete harms on small newsrooms through disrupted investigations, delayed publications, financial strain, and loss of trust. Nawaat's founding in 2004 and role in the 2011 uprising make it a persistent symbol of civic resistance.
Read at Electronic Frontier Foundation
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