Tunisia: Kamel Labidi to chair National Independent Authority for Information and Communication
TUNIS, Feb. 27, 2011 (TAP)
Mr. Kamel Labidi was appointed, according to an authorised source from the Interim Government, as Head of the National Independent Authority for Information and Communication.
Mr. Kamel Labidi was born on June 4, 1949 in Bouhjar, Monastir.
He holds a master’s degree in journalism from the Institute of Press and Information Science (IPSI-1975) and another in English Literature (1976) from the Tunis Faculty of Arts and Humanities.
Mr. Labidi also obtained a post-graduate diploma (DEA) in communication sciences from Paris II University.
He joined the editorial services of «Tunis Afrique Presse» (TAP) news agency in 1975 and was discharged for 3 years (1978-1981) because of his refusal to participate in the official media campaign conducted against the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT) before the events of January 26.
He was then dismissed from his job in TAP in 1994 and banned from practicing journalism as correspondent to French newspaper «La Croix» and United Press International (UPI) Agency for his hostility to the November 7 regime.
Mr. Labidi was director of the Tunis section of Amnesty International (1995-1996) before being forced into exile like dozens of Tunisian journalists.
He then wrote in Arab and Western newspapers, in addition to his position as co-ordinator of education on human rights at the regional office of Amnesty International Organisation (Lebanon), between 2000 and 2001. He was also adviser to the international network for exchanging information on freedom of expression (2004-2011).
Mr. Labidi, then, became representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), resident in Cairo, and was afterwards adviser to this same organisation in Washington (2005-2010).
