Tunisia thanks its media

Journalists will be exempted from Tunisian marriage contract registration fees, according to authorities in Tunis, in a move celebrating the 20th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day. Carthage Municipality officials have claimed the new policy is a thank-you to journalists who have achieved “freedom and dignity” in the aftermath of Tunisia’s 2011 Arab Spring revolution, which ousted dictator Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali. Journalists would no longer pay registration fees “in recognition of the important role played [by them] in promoting freedom of the press […] the most important gain achieved in the revolution,” an official statement said. In future, all card-carrying members of the National Union of Tunisian Journalists will be exempt from obtaining marriage contracts at the El Rehab Sofoniba municipal hall.