Tunis - (AFP) - The Tunisian Journalists Syndicate denounced, on Tuesday, the authorities' efforts to "intimidate the media" after the Minister of Justice filed a lawsuit against a news website that criticized Prime Minister Najlaa Boudin.

Last Thursday, the Tunisian news website "Business News" published an article in French entitled "Naglaa Boudin, the nice woman," in which it dealt with her government performance.

The article stated that the prime minister "has been in office in the Kasbah (palace) since October 11, 2021 (...) and has not achieved anything in 13 months of rule," during which the social and economic situation deteriorated with a government that "did not stop disrupting the economic fabric." .

Under a presidential decree criticized by local and international NGOs as "repressive," Justice Minister Leila Jaffal on Friday filed a lawsuit against "Business News" for "defamation" and "publishing false news and attributing untrue matters to a public official."

The website is the first media outlet to be prosecuted since President Kais Saied issued Decree 54 on September 16, which was strongly criticized by civil society.

The decree provides for a five-year prison sentence and a fine of 50,000 Tunisian dinars (15,500 euros) for anyone who “deliberately uses communication networks and information systems to produce, promote, publish or send false information or false rumors.”

The decree targets people who commit such acts "with the aim of attacking others, harming public security, or spreading panic" among citizens. According to the decree, the penalty becomes "double" if the target is a public employee.

AFP contacted the Communications Department of the Ministry of Justice, but the latter refused to provide information about the case.

On Monday, the Anti-Crime Squad in the capital, Tunis, summoned the director of the site, Nizar Bahloul, and listened to him, according to what the latter told Agence France-Presse.

Bahloul added that the questions related to the content of the article and the terminology used, explaining that he did not know whether the case had been closed.

For her part, Amira Mohamed, vice president of the National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists, said in a statement to Agence France-Presse that "there is no defamation in the Business News article, and recourse to the judiciary proves the authorities' will to intimidate the media and journalists into silence."

"We condemn this kind of repressive practices under a text that restricts freedoms," she added.

Several local and international NGOs express their regret for the "decline" of freedoms in Tunisia since President Said Kamel assumed the executive and legislative powers on July 25, 2021.