The most recent wave of protests in Tunisia — triggered by harsh austerity measures put in place by the Tunisian government and the International Monetary Fund — saw hundreds of arrests, dozens of injuries and one protester death. Seven years after its revolution, Tunisia is often heralded as a “success story” of the so-called Arab Spring. The protests highlighted the deep economic and employment issues of the country and the persistent, extraordinary force the security services use when managing these situations.

They also brought to the surface another worrying development: regressions on press freedom. Since the protests began on Jan. 8, four journalists have been detained and questioned by local police or the National Guard, despite having the proper press credentials. Two photojournalists from the Turkish news agency Anadolu, a Radio France International correspondent and a French independent journalist were all detained in separate incidents. Though the interactions were described as “civil in nature,” one journalist was asked to release the identity of his sources (he declined), while an Anadolu photographer had his photos deleted.

“These incidents illustrate the awakening of the security organization’s old reflexes toward the press in general. It’s a culture of police control that was considered over after the revolution but that persists and rises back up to the surface,” Fred Bobin, a correspondent for Le Monde and president of the North African Foreign Correspondents' Club (NAFCC), told Al-Monitor by email. The NAFCC is the government-recognized law association that represents the interests of foreign journalists in the region.

One of the most promising gains of the 2011 Tunisian revolution was freedom of expression, an integral part of its new and hard-fought democracy. Relaxations on the press brought essential critique and nuance to television, radio, books, newspapers and journals. Censorship had been central to the dictatorship of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, as he cracked down on any perceived political or religious opposition. Tunisia’s constitution did not clearly define press freedoms, and libel and defamation (broadly defined) were criminalized, allowing Ben Ali to control the country’s narrative.