Tunis: Tunisia is closing its embassy in Qatar and withdrawing its diplomats to protest alleged bias by the Qatar-based Al Jazeera television channel against the Tunis government.
"The Qatari channel Al Jazeera is used to falsify the truth and objectivity when it deals with Tunisia's issues, ignoring the profession's norms and its simplest rules within the context of a ... campaign aimed at harming Tunisia," the Foreign Ministry said.
"Tunisia has decided to end its diplomatic representation in Qatar and shut down its embassy in Doha despite the warmth and and respect it harbours towards the sister country Qatar."
Eleven days ago Al Jazeera, an Arab satellite television station widely watched in the Arab world, broadcast remarks by veteran Tunisian dissident Moncef Marzouki in which he called for peaceful resistance to the Tunisian government.
"Such behaviour [Al Jazeera's alleged bias] is against freedom of expression because it incites disorder and appeals to insurrection which offends the laws ... and values on which relations between nations are founded," the ministry said.
The ministry statement made no mention of Marzouki who returned to Tunisia from France on Saturday vowing to campaign for democracy.
He had lived and worked in France since 2001.
The authorities have started court proceedings against Marzouki for alleged incitement to violence and civil disobedience following his remarks on Al Jazeera.
