When around 100 people tried to demonstrate outside the Kasbah Palace in Tunis on July 15 in protest against the current government’s policies, police blocked access to the palace, so many of the demonstrators went to the nearest mosque to made their demands heard, accompanied by the dozens of journalists who were there to cover the protest.
The security forces charged the protesters several times, hitting them with batons, insulting them and using out-of-date tear-gas on them. They also used violence against journalists, who were clearly identifiable because of their cameras even if they were not wearing press markings...
“Hundreds of people were deliberately targeted by the police,” Agence France-Presse correspondent Sofiane Ben Farhat told Reporters Without Borders. “I heard men in uniform shout: ‘The men with cameras down there, they must be attacked’.” Defending their actions, the police accused the demonstrators of vandalism and taking alcohol into the mosque. The Union of Journalists filed a complaint against the interior ministry the next day.
http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?p=37375
