Journalists who are candidates on the independent list for the leadership of the new National Union of Journalists have said that they will work in defense of the rights and dignity of journalists, for the independence of their profession, for the freedom of information, and against dependency and the abdication of responsibility. [Full Story in Arabic]



The members of the independent list organized a press conference on Thursday, at the headquarters of the Tunisian Journalists Association to publicize the most important planks of the electoral platform.



Abdelrahman Mohsen, a candidate on the independent list, stated that many Tunisian journalists have been subjected to harassment and violations of their rights. It was these factors that have motivated him to stand as a candidate for the executive office of the National Union of Journalists, having been a member of the administrative committee of the moribund Tunisian Journalists Association.



He added that his activity in support of the association realized some gains, like its production and issuing of a courageous report on the status of the Tunisian press and its defense of journalists who were fired from their jobs.



Another journalist, Abdelhaqq Tarshouani, said that journalistic dignity and journalistic responsibility are equal twins, not separate. He pointed out that the role and function of the association are limited at this time, and describes the founding of the new Union of Journalists as ''a great event.''



The journalist and film critic Khamis Al-Khiyati stated that he insists on the importance of maintaining the ethics of the profession. In response to a question from ''Aafaq'' on the means that the independent list would carry out its program if elected, Al-Khiyati answered that their demands were reasonable and can be implemented, adding that ''in the event that all members of our list of five candidates are elected, we will be the majority, and we will implement our program by means of discussion and the defense of our demands with the firmness that is needed.''



Journalist Zeid Al-Hani said that ''freedom of the press is our support and the leg we stand on,'' and added that the struggle for press freedom is inseparable from the defense of the intellectual and material interests of journalists. He insisted that the list does not have a monopoly on ''independence,'' which is the ''mutual interaction of all competing candidates.''



In a special interview he gave to ''Aafaq,'' the journalist Naji Al-Bagouri emphasized that the independent list is ''the union alternative'' that will participate with all journalists, to advance the profession and the renaissance of the Tunisian journalist, free the press from clientage and tutelage, and participate in establishing the values of progress and modernity. Al-Bagouri said, ''our list emerges from deep journalistic roots; it is an independent list in every sense of the word, for here 'independence' is not merely a slogan.''



The annual meeting of the journalists convened on October 26, 2007, and voted to dissolve the Tunisian Journalists Association, which had been in existence for nearly 40 years, and to found the National Union of Tunisian Journalists in its place.



The founding conference of the National Union of Journalists is to take place this Saturday and Sunday, amid fierce competition among four different lists for the leadership of its executive office.