Themes Bassam Bounenni 18 May 2009

Dictatorship, Tunisia’s undeserved fate

At a press conference on May 4, Naji Bghouri, the head of the National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT), was prevented by pro-government journalists from finishing comments in which he mentioned of declining press freedoms in Tunisia. The episode showed that the regime of President Zine al-Abedine ben Ali had lost patience even with a body that it had helped establish in January 2008 to cut the grass out from under the feet of the country’s most critical journalists.

Themes Nawaat 08 April 2009

Algerians Vote In Tunisia

First on the list is Algeria, which is scheduled to hold a presidential vote a few days from now on April 9th. After nearly a decade of an atrocious civil war that broke out in 1992 after the country’s secular general intervened to stop an Islamic fundamentalist party from winning the democratically held national elections. Over 200,000 Algerians were killed in that war, often in brutal fashion by the Islamists.

Themes Sami Ben Gharbia 03 April 2009

Interview with Robert Guerra about the Freedom on the Net Index

A new report on Internet freedom was launched by Freedom House, an organization which monitors freedom around the world. The “Freedom on the Net” study surveyed 15 countries on the basis of two key components: access to Web and mobile technology and the free flow of information through it. The report covered events that took place in the years 2007 and 2008, identifying new emerging threats to Internet freedom.

Themes Nawaat 02 April 2009

Freedom on the Net Index: Tunisia ranked worst, behind Cuba

Since traditional media are censored and tightly controlled by the government, the internet has been used as a relatively free and uncensored means of airing political and social opinions, and as an alternative field for public debates on serious political issues. This uncontrolled freedom of expression has led to the creation of an extensive censorship and filtering system.