Tunis: 57 MPs from different parliamentary blocs and unaffiliated members on Wednesday submitted a request to Parliament’s Bureau to expedite the consideration of a legislative initiative related to the revision of Decree 54 on combating crimes related to information and communication systems, which has been submitted to it since last February.
“The 57 MPs deposited their request at the Registry of the Assembly of People’s Representatives (ARP) on Wednesday and it is up to the Bureau to refer our legislative initiative to the Committee on Rights and Freedoms, as required by internal law, in particular Article 123,” Mohamed Ali (Sovereign National Line Bloc), rapporteur of the Committee on Rights and Freedoms and one of the signatories of the request for urgent consideration, told TAP.
This article “gives MPs the right to present legislative initiatives, provided that they are presented by at least 10 MPs,” he added.
In his statement, the MP recalled that 40 MPs had submitted a legislative initiative to ame
nd this decree on February 20 and had not received a “written response from the Bureau of the Parliament, despite the fact that the request was brought to its attention on more than one occasion”.
He stressed that “the ARP Bureau has no right to confiscate the right of MPs, to exercise prior censorship or to impose an internal vote on members of the Bureau for the consideration of any legislative initiative submitted by MPs”.
A few days ago, during an event held by the National Union of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT), MP Mohamed Ali stated that the legislative initiative proposed since 20 February to revise Decree No. 54 included chapters 5, 9, 10, 12, 21, 22 and 23. In particular, it concerns chapter 24, which, according to him, “is the chapter that poses a real problem and is the main subject of the revision, given its harsh provisions and its use to restrict freedom of expression”.
The idea behind the submission of the initiative to amend Decree No. 54 was “to take the debate on it out of the public sphere
and put it on its natural and real legislative path,” he pointed out.
Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse