 Ever
since Radio Kalima staffers launched their new station on January 26, Tunisian
plainclothes police have done everything they can to suppress the newly launched
satellite radio station: besieging the offices for several days, threatening a
managing editor with a knife, and finally breaking into the building and
confiscating the equipment.
The radio station was launched by the same team in charge of the online magazine
Kalima, which is blocked within the country, and housed in the same building.
On January 30, after days of surrounding the offices, police confiscated
equipment such as computers, phones, recorders, and flash discs, according to
the Observatory of Press, Publishing, and Creative Freedom in Tunisia.
A who judge was present when police took over the building subsequently launched
an investigation against Sihem Bensedrine, editor-in-chief of Kalima, for using
a broadcasting frequency without obtaining a legal license, Lotfi Hidouri,
a Kalima contributor, told CPJ. The station broadcasts over the Internet, and
via satellite from Italy, whose government has granted permission to use the
frequency. Tunisian laws don't address Internet streaming, both staffers said.
Radio Kalima is currently broadcasting from a temporary location,
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