President of the Independent High Authority for Elections (French:ISIE) Farouk Bouasker said offences reported in the runoff local elections campaign – either common law or election crimes- are essentially committed in the public space in social networks, websites and electronic platforms.
These offences will be brought before the public prosecutor, Bouasker told reporters as he visited Tuesday the centre for monitoring the election campaign in dowtown Tunis, pursuant to the principle of equality before the law.
These offences having criminal nature include crimes of spreading false news, rumours and slander against public official, i.e. the electoral commission, and public denigration.
These offences are either common law or election crimes that are not committed by candidates but by people active on social media and in audiovisual media.
Most of these election offences and crimes took place in the public space of social media. Audiovisual media reported the second largest number, followed by print and
electronic media. These breaches and crimes also were reported as part of field activities.
The ISIE council looks daily at these offences and issues decisions after having them classified as offences or crimes by experts in monitoring units.
Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse