Tunisian journalists union say president is No 1 enemy of press freedom

FILE PHOTO: Demonstrators carry banners during a protest organized by the National Union of Tunisian Journalists, calling for the freedom of expression in Tunis, Tunisia September 9, 2022. REUTERS/Jihed Abidellaoui/File Photo

TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia's main journalists' union accused President Kais Saied on Wednesday of becoming the number one enemy of press freedom since he seized almost all powers in 2021, a move that the opposition described as a coup.

A free press was a key gain that Tunisians won from the 2011 revolution that ended the autocratic rule of the late President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. But journalists complain now that those freedoms have been eroded.