Tunisian journalist sentenced to 6 months in prison for insulting an official

By BOUAZZA BEN BOUAZZA
Associated Press

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — A judge in Tunisia has sentenced a journalist and political commentator to six months in prison in the country’s latest assault on members of the media who criticize the government. Mohamed Boughalleb, who had been charged with insulting a public official, was sentenced Wednesday. He will remain behind bars, where he has been since his arrest last month after an official lodged a complaint against him. The complaint from a member of Tunisia’s Ministry of Religious Affairs came after Boughalleb on Facebook questioned ministry trips abroad by the minister and called them a “waste of public funds.” Boughalleb’s lawyers denounced the sentence as “an assault on freedom of expression”