Tunisia softens its ‘false news’ penalty. What really changed, and why now?

Fines replace jail terms for first-time ‘false news’ offences under a decree rights groups say is still repressive.

Tunisia's President Kais Saied speaks after being sworn in for a second five-year term on October 21, 2024 [Fethi Belaid/AFP]

Tunisia has softened a cybercrime law that has landed journalists and activists in prison, letting first-time offenders pay fines instead of serving time.

The amendment to Decree 54, which went into effect on Wednesday, sets fines of 10,000 to 20,000 Tunisian dinars ($3,370 to $6,740) for a first offence of spreading “false news” and related violations.

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The fines replace a five-year prison sentence. However, repeat offenders may still face jail.

Rights and media freedom advocates in Tunisia and abroad have long opposed the decree as repressive, saying it has been wielded against President Kais Saied’s opposition, activists and reporters.

The government, meanwhile, says the decree protects people and public order from attack, and is needed to tackle online crime and disinformation.

So what has changed, how has the decree been used, and why has Tunisia softened it now?

What does the amended law say?

Decree 54, issued by President Kais Saied in September 2022, made it an offence to spread falsehoods by electronic means.

Until this week, anyone convicted of circulating untrue information deemed threatening to public security, or to infringe on other people’s rights, risked up to five years in prison.

The penalties also applied when allegedly doctored content, personal data or untrue allegations were spread to stir up hatred, incite attacks, defame someone, damage their reputation or cause them material or moral harm.

Targeting a public official or a person of equivalent status raised the ceiling to a decade behind bars and a fine of 100,000 dinars (more than $32,000).

Anyone who reoffended faced six months behind bars on top of a 50,000-dinar fine (more than $16,000).

The penalties doubled when the offence was aimed at a public official or someone of equivalent status.

How has Decree 54 been used?

The decree has garnered widespread criticism from Tunisian and international organisations concerned with press freedom.

The law was “one of the potent tools of oppression used by the government to crush dissent, crack down on civic space and arbitrarily restrict the freedom of expression in the country,” Said Benarbia, Middle East and North Africa director of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), told Al Jazeera.

Rafik Abdessalem, Tunisia’s foreign minister from 2011 to 2013 and a senior figure in the Islamist Ennahdha party, said the decree had been used “to silence every voice critical of the regime”.

Ennahdha was a leading opposition party under Saied until he initiated a severe crackdown against it, sentencing its leadership , including Abdessalem, to long prison sentences, some in absentia.

The National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT) documented that hundreds of journalists, bloggers, opposition politicians, lawyers and activists had been tried under the decree since it came into force in 2022, and declared the situation an “emergency”.

In its latest annual report, the SNJT recorded 14 prosecutions of journalists between April 2025 and April 2026 – six of them under the decree.

In one example, prominent Tunisian lawyer and columnist Sonia Dahmani was sentenced to two years for criticising conditions in Tunisian prisons in a radio interview this May.

She has been charged under the decree in five cases, each relating to remarks she made in media appearances, and had already been sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment after criticising Saied’s policies in 2024.

Lawyers carry banners during a protest against the arrest of Sonia Dahmani outside the Palace of Justice building in Tunis, Tunisia on May 13, 2024 [Jihed Abidellaoui/Reuters]

Another citizen, Saber Ben Chouchane, was sentenced to death after being charged under a number of censorship laws, including Decree 54, for Facebook posts. He was later granted a presidential pardon.

Among international critics of the decree are Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the European Parliament, which has described it as “a tool to interfere with fundamental freedoms” and called for its repeal.

Critics connect it to a larger trend of democratic backsliding in the country since Saied took office, undoing progress the country has made after its 2011 revolution.

In 2021, during his third year in office, Saied suspended parliament, dismissed the government and began ruling by presidential decree – steps his critics have denounced as an autocratic subversion of Tunisia’s democratising political system.

A new constitution, put to a referendum in 2022 that many Tunisians boycotted, later locked in those powers.

In 2024, amid political repression, Saied won a second five-year term with more than 90 percent of the vote. It was the lowest turnout of any election since 2011 at 28.8 percent.

Saied rejects accusations of autocratic rule, saying his actions are legal and are needed to end years of disorder and alleged corruption.

Hours before Wednesday’s amendment came into effect, civil society groups spearheaded by Tunisia’s largest labour union unveiled plans for a nationwide march over what they regarded as restrictions on civil liberties.

Seven years after Tunisians elected Saied on promises he would address the country’s poor economic situation and tackle corruption, Tunisians have found themselves facing a cost-of-living crisis and restrictions to their political freedoms.

In the past year, the country has seen a rise in demonstrations by civil society against abuses of power, democratic backsliding and deteriorating living standards. In June, hundreds of protesters in Tunis called for press freedom and for detained critics to be freed. In July, thousands gathered on the fifth anniversary of Saied’s suspension of parliament, urging him to “leave”.

Abdessalem, the former foreign minister, credited popular mobilisation – in the form of marches and gatherings – for forcing the government to back down.

Saied also faced mounting pressure from abroad. In July, a member of the US House of Representatives, Joe Wilson, said he would keep pushing a bill that would impose sanctions on Saied and those closest to him for anti-democratic policies.

Is the amendment enough?

Critics say the amendment does little to address freedom of speech concerns under Saied’s government.

The reduction in penalties was a “positive development”, Benarbia of the International Commission of Jurists said, but what was required was an end to all abusive prosecutions and the release of those arbitrarily detained under the decree.

Even if repealed, a host of other legal measures have been used to harass, imprison and exile Saied’s opponents.

“In short, the punishment has been reduced, but its repressive and punitive character remains unchanged,” Abdessalem told Al Jazeera. The amendment aimed to make the image of Saied’s Tunisia “less bleak” after it has become associated with “trials, arrests and the use of arbitrary decrees,” he said.

Lotfi Hajji, head of Al Jazeera’s bureau in Tunisia, said civil society groups and the journalists’ union were demanding Decree 54 be scrapped altogether, so that journalists could be judged under the 2011 press freedom law instead.

That law was one of the main gains of the revolution, Hajji said, balancing freedom with responsibility. Proposals in parliament since 2024 for a wider overhaul have been ignored.

根据一项法令，对于初犯“虚假新闻”罪行，将以罚款代替监禁，但人权组织表示，这项法令仍然具有压制性。

2024年10月21日，突尼斯总统凯斯·赛义德宣誓就职，开始他的第二个五年任期，并在就职后发表讲话。[Fethi Belaid/AFP]

突尼斯放宽了网络犯罪法，该法曾导致记者和活动人士入狱，现在允许初犯者缴纳罚款而不是服刑。

周三生效的第 54 号法令修正案规定，首次散布“虚假新闻”及相关违法行为将被处以 10,000 至 20,000 突尼斯第纳尔（3,370 至 6,740 美元）的罚款。

列表 1/3：突尼斯酷暑难耐，停电导致供水中断

突尼斯抗议者要求释放四名苏穆德运动人士（名单2/3）

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罚款取代了五年监禁。但是，屡犯者仍可能面临牢狱之灾。

突尼斯国内外的人权和媒体自由倡导者长期以来一直反对这项法令，认为其具有压制性，并表示该法令被用来打压总统凯斯·赛义德的反对派、活动人士和记者。

与此同时，政府表示，该法令旨在保护人民和公共秩序免受攻击，是打击网络犯罪和虚假信息的必要措施。

那么，究竟发生了什么变化？该法令是如何被使用的？为什么突尼斯现在又软化了该法令？

修订后的法律规定是什么？

2022 年 9 月，凯斯·赛义德总统颁布了第 54 号法令，规定通过电子手段散布虚假信息属于违法行为。

直到本周，任何被判散布被认为威胁公共安全或侵犯他人权利的不实信息的人，都可能面临最高五年的监禁。

如果传播涉嫌篡改的内容、个人数据或不实指控，以煽动仇恨、挑起攻击、诽谤他人、损害他人名誉或对其造成物质或精神伤害，也将受到处罚。

如果以公职人员或同等地位的人员为目标，最高刑罚可达十年监禁和 10 万第纳尔（超过 3.2 万美元）的罚款。

再次犯罪者将面临六个月监禁，并处以 5 万第纳尔（超过 1.6 万美元）的罚款。

如果犯罪对象是公职人员或具有同等地位的人，则处罚加倍。

第54号法令是如何实施的？

该法令遭到了突尼斯和国际上关注新闻自由组织的广泛批评。

国际法学家委员会 (ICJ) 中东和北非主任赛义德·贝纳比亚告诉半岛电视台：“这项法律是政府用来镇压异议、打压公民空间和任意限制该国言论自由的有力压迫工具之一。”

突尼斯前外交部长（2011 年至 2013 年）兼伊斯兰复兴运动党高级成员拉菲克·阿卜杜勒萨勒姆表示，该法令被用来“压制所有批评政权的声音”。

在赛义德统治时期，复兴运动党曾是主要的反对党，但赛义德对其进行了严厉镇压，判处包括阿卜杜勒萨勒姆在内的该党领导人长期监禁，其中一些人还被缺席判刑。

突尼斯全国记者协会 (SNJT) 记录显示，自 2022 年该法令生效以来，已有数百名记者、博主、反对派政治家、律师和活动人士根据该法令接受审判，并宣布这种情况属于“紧急状态”。

SNJT 在其最新年度报告中记录了 2025 年 4 月至 2026 年 4 月期间对记者提起的 14 起诉讼——其中 6 起是根据该法令提起的。

例如，今年五月，突尼斯著名律师兼专栏作家索尼娅·达赫马尼因在一次电台采访中批评突尼斯监狱的状况而被判处两年监禁。

她因违反该法令在五起案件中被起诉，每起案件都与她在媒体露面时发表的言论有关。2024年，她因批评赛义德的政策而被判处18个月监禁。

2024年5月13日，在突尼斯首都突尼斯市的司法宫外，律师们举着横幅抗议索尼娅·达赫马尼被捕。[Jihed Abidellaoui/路透社]

另一名公民萨贝尔·本·舒沙内因在脸书上发帖而被控违反多项审查法，包括第54号法令，并被判处死刑。他后来获得了总统特赦。

国际上对该法令持批评态度的组织包括国际特赦组织、人权观察组织和欧洲议会，欧洲议会称该法令是“干涉基本自由的工具”，并呼吁废除该法令。

批评人士认为，这与赛义德上任以来该国民主倒退的大趋势有关，抹杀了该国在 2011 年革命后取得的进步。

2021 年，赛义德执政的第三年，他暂停了议会，解散了政府，开始以总统令进行统治——他的批评者谴责这些举措是对突尼斯民主化政治体系的专制颠覆。

一部新宪法于 2022 年提交全民公投，但许多突尼斯人抵制了公投，后来这些权力被锁定。

2024年，在政治镇压的背景下，赛义德以超过90%的得票率赢得第二个五年任期。此次选举的投票率仅为28.8%，是自2011年以来最低的一次。

赛义德否认独裁统治的指控，称他的行为合法，是为了结束多年的混乱和所谓的腐败。

在周三的修正案生效前几个小时，由突尼斯最大的工会牵头的民间社会团体公布了在全国范围内举行游行的计划，抗议他们认为对公民自由的限制。

七年前，突尼斯人民选举赛义德为总统，承诺他将解决该国糟糕的经济状况并打击腐败。然而，突尼斯人民却发现自己正面临生活成本危机和政治自由受限的问题。

过去一年，该国公民社会针对滥用权力、民主倒退和生活水平下降的示威活动有所增加。6月，数百名抗议者在突尼斯呼吁新闻自由，并要求释放被拘留的批评人士。7月，数千人聚集在赛义德暂停议会五周年之际，敦促他“下台”。

前外交部长阿卜杜勒萨利姆认为，民众的动员——以游行和集会的形式——迫使政府让步。

赛义德还面临着来自国外的日益增长的压力。7月，美国众议员乔·威尔逊表示，他将继续推动一项法案，该法案将对赛义德及其亲信实施制裁，理由是他们推行反民主政策。

这项修正案足够吗？

批评人士称，该修正案对解决赛义德政府统治下的言论自由问题几乎没有任何作用。

国际法学家委员会的贝纳尔比亚表示，减轻处罚是一个“积极的进展”，但需要的是停止所有滥用职权的起诉，并释放那些根据该法令被任意拘留的人。

即使废除了该法案，赛义德还利用一系列其他法律措施来骚扰、监禁和流放他的反对者。

阿卜杜勒萨勒姆告诉半岛电视台：“简而言之，刑罚有所减轻，但其压制性和惩罚性本质依然不变。” 他说，这项修正案旨在改善赛义德领导下的突尼斯的形象，此前突尼斯一直与“审判、逮捕和任意颁布法令”联系在一起。

半岛电视台驻突尼斯分社社长洛特菲·哈吉表示，民间社会团体和记者工会要求彻底废除第 54 号法令，以便根据 2011 年新闻自由法来评判记者。

哈吉表示，这项法律是革命的主要成果之一，它平衡了自由与责任。自2024年以来，议会提出的更广泛改革方案一直被忽视。