On Thursday 14 May 2009, the 5th Criminal Chamber of the Court of First Instance in Tunis convicted the 22-year old ICT Student, Mariam Zouaghi, who was in custody, on separate terrorist-related charges, and sentenced her to six years in prison.

Mariam Zouaghi is the first Tunisian woman to be convicted under The Anti-Terrorism Act of 10 December 2003.

Mariam has been arrested on July 26th, 2008, for visiting banned websites, publishing online articles on alleged extremist forum boards and collecting money to support Gaza.

In a phone call with Global Voices Advocacy, defense lawyer, Samir Ben Amor, says Mariam maintained her innocence and denied accusations that she belonged to any terror groups. She also stressed that her case was related to her online activities and her support to the people of Gaza.Related posts (automagically generated):

• June 8, 2008 — بالأحمر كفناه
• March 27, 2008 — قطع الماء عن زنزانة الصحفي و المدوّن سليم بوخذير
• April 8, 2007 — حوار مع الصحفي و المدوّن محمد الفوراتي
• April 23, 2006 — محنة عائلة السجين الشاب محجوب الزياني
• February 13, 2009 — إسترتيجيات القمع و المقاومة على الشبكة التونسية

I first met Mohamed Nanabhay, the 29-year-old South African, during the 3rd Annual Aljazeera Forum in Doha, Qatar, in 2007. Mohamed is a prominent blogger, a friend and a colleague from Global Voices covering Qatar where he is based. Mohamed is the former Aljazeera head of New Media and the mastermind of the Aljazeera's successful invasion of the Web.

Aware that traditional mainstream media outlets, such as radio, TV and newspapers, are losing audience to new platforms, he developed a new Web-inspired business strategy for Aljazeera, finding new news sources, experimenting new tools and engaging people wherever they are and drive them between venues.

"We are using exactly the same tools as others on the Internet, like bloggers and anyone in the new media industry. We are looking at Youtube, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter…anywhere where people are congregating, having a conversation and posting content. These are the places where we operate and try to be involved in," he told me "so, we are looking at how can we proactively engage online and make our content available to our audience. We don't treat our audience as criminals. They are the people who watch us, they are the people who will be produceful. Our experiment with the Creative Commons license is to say how can we take our content and make legally available building on an existing copyright law".

But the challenges are immense: fighting the internal resistance to change and winning over the skeptics online are not easy tasks.

"The media industry is going through a phenomenal transformation. As everything goes online and everything became digital, the way we deal with media has to change," said Mohamed, "and that poses challenges to most content industries. We've seen what happened to the music industry when all the music went online with P2P and so on; they are trying to figure out what the business model is. The same thing is happening to Hollywood at the moment and to other content producers as well".

On 13 Jan 2009, Al Jazeera has started to share some of its footage of the military conflict in Gaza under the most permissive Creative Commons license that allows commercial re-use and remixing. And of course, Mohamed is very excited about this experiment. "Wikipedia contributers immediately grabbed the content, started taking the videos and pulling out still images to compliment wikipedia articles," he said, "we've saw many non-governmental organizations, activists groups take the content and use it for their own promo videos, other broadcasters are using it, such as the RAI in Italy, video games producers are starting using it. It's quite exciting to see what happens when you allow people to use your content."

Undoubtedly, Aljazeera has revolutionized the approach to media in the Arab world, and it seems that the Web is revolutionizing Aljazeera approach to news gathering and news dissemination. "We hope that we are at the forefront of the revolution, maybe to be an avant-garde of it in the digital age and really push it forward and innovate," Mohamed said.

I met Mohamed again last week in Germany during the Berkman Center & Aspen Institute Event on Internet & Democracy in the Middle East and he was kind enough to share with us some of his thought about this Web-driven revolution within Aljazeera. Thanks Mohamed.Related posts (automagically generated):

• June 16, 2007 — النشاط الألكتروني للمدوّنين التونسيين
• December 12, 2006 — Speak up!
• February 13, 2009 — إسترتيجيات القمع و المقاومة على الشبكة التونسية
• January 12, 2009 — لقاء تلفزي حول المدونين العرب مع الصحفية نجاة شرف الدين
• December 16, 2008 — Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Syria Prevent blogger and journalists from Attending Free Press Conference in Beirut

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.

The report also states that there is more Internet freedom than Press freedom, and that activists are becoming more creative in resisting governmentally imposed restrictions on the Internet.

In his video interview with Global Voices Advocacy, Robert Guerra, Project Director for Freedom House's Global Internet Freedom Program, talks about this new initiative and shares some of his thoughts about threats to freedom of online expression.

Washington – April 1, 2009 – A new study from Freedom House warns that the rights of internet and mobile phone users are increasingly at risk as governments, both repressive and democratic, expand their ability to monitor and control online activity.
Freedom on the Net identifies wide disparities in internet freedom among the 15 countries studied and raises concern over trends such as the "outsourcing of censorship" to private companies and authoritarian governments' use of undercover agents to manipulate online conversations. The report cites both repressive and democratic governments for internet surveillance and for failing to adequately inform users about censorship standards
"More than a billion people look to the internet and mobile phones to provide a new freedom frontier, where they can exercise their right to freedom of expression without repercussion," said Jennifer Windsor, Freedom House executive director. "But as access grows, more governments are employing diverse and sophisticated methods to monitor, censor and punish internet users."

Freedom House developed the pilot study to better understand emerging threats to internet freedom. Freedom on the Net evaluates each country based on barriers to access, limitations on content and violations of users' rights. It captures not only government actions, but also indicates that citizens are resisting government attempts to restrict their online activity.

Findings from the study, which covers events from 2007 to 2008, will be formally released Wednesday to a conference of more than a thousand bloggers in Berlin, Germany. Freedom House hopes to expand the study to examine internet freedom in all countries of the world.
Cuba received the lowest score in the study because of the Castro regime's near total control over internet access. Three other countries received a ranking of Not Free: China, Iran and Tunisia. The vast majority of the countries studied received a Partly Free ranking: Egypt, Georgia, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Russia and Turkey. Estonia tops the study as the country with the most internet freedom. Other countries ranked Free are: Brazil, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

The study's China report shows a particular paradox: a country with an estimated 300 million online users that also has the world’s most highly-developed censorship apparatus. China ties with Cuba for the country with the most curbs on users' rights, including prosecutions for online activities, surveillance and extra-legal harassment of bloggers.

"Freedom House is heartened by the fact that citizens, even in highly-repressive countries like China, Cuba and Iran, are pushing back with creativity and courage against these growing government controls over the internet," said Windsor. "Democratic countries should not only support such voices, but also set an example of best practice with their own digital media policies."

General Trends

Growing Access, Threats: In six (40 percent) of the countries examined, internet use doubled between 2006 and 2008. Mobile phone penetration doubled in three (20 percent) of the countries. At the same time, six countries (40 percent) sentenced a blogger to prison and a third of the countries introduced new internet-restricting legislation. Methods to control and censor traditional media are seeping into the new media environment, but are not as common yet. In addition to imprisonment, torture, and intimidation of internet activists, governments also engage in online harassment by hacking or using technical means to shut down websites.

Censorship Proliferates: Eleven countries (73 percent) targeted political content in at least one instance, and general censorship and control was present in every country studied. Censorship techniques included technical filtering, manual content removal because of government directives, intimidation, judicial decisions and sophisticated manipulation of online conversations by undercover agents.

Outsourcing Censorship: More governments are requiring private actors such as internet service providers, blog hosting companies, cybercafé employees and mobile phone operators to censor and monitor users. This outsourcing affects both local and multinational companies.

More Internet Freedom than Press Freedom: For every country in the study—with the exception of the United Kingdom—their internet freedom score outperformed their score in Freedom House’s Freedom of the Press study, which principally examines broadcast and print media. These differences were most pronounced in the Partly Free countries such as Kenya, Russia and Malaysia.

Civic Activism Increases: Citizens are resisting government control by blogging, using code for sensitive keywords and organizing protests and advocacy groups through social networks like Facebook.

Key Country Findings

• Cuba is one of the world's most repressive environments for internet freedom, despite a slight relaxation of restrictions on computer and mobile phone sales in 2008. There is almost no access to internet applications other than e-mail and surveillance is extensive. Cuba is one of the few countries with laws and regulations explicitly restricting and outlawing certain online activities.
• China is home to the largest population of users, but its rulers employ the world's most sophisticated, multi-layered, and wide-ranging apparatus for repressing internet freedom. It has the most cyber dissidents behind bars, at least 49 as of mid-2008. In addition, cyber dissidents are sentenced to longer prison terms than elsewhere, and extra-legal forms of harassment and violence are on the rise. Authorities and private providers employ hundreds of thousands to monitor, censor, and manipulate online content.
• Iran uses a complex system of nationwide content filtering, intimidation, detention and torture of bloggers, and restriction of broadband access to subvert freedom of expression online. Authorities detained and questioned more than a dozen bloggers in 2008 and a bill enabling the death penalty for online activities passed its first reading in parliament.
• Russia does not engage in significant technical blocking or filtering, but authorities are increasingly removing content through behind-the-scenes pressure. Internet freedom is threatened by a rise in attacks and criminal cases targeting bloggers, while the government manipulates online discussion by funding its own propaganda websites.
• Egypt does not engage in widespread censorship of the internet and the government has actively encouraged access to technology. But security services and their allies are known to monitor users and use low-tech methods of control such as intimidation, detention, imprisonment, and torture to silence online activists.
• South Africa has a high level of digital media freedom, but a majority of citizens are unable to access the internet because of high costs and language barriers. Political content is not censored and bloggers are not prosecuted for online activities. Unlike other countries in the study, South Africa has more people accessing the internet on their mobile phones than from computers.
• The United Kingdom has one of the world's freest environments. But there are growing concerns about the widespread retention of user data by service providers and the permissive environment for "libel tourism" (in which the UK allows individuals, often from authoritarian countries, to sue authors whose work is available in the UK, including online versions). The procedures used by the private Internet Watch Foundation to remove harmful internet content lack transparency and the appeals process could be improved.

Freedom House, an independent nongovernmental organization that supports the expansion of freedom in the world, has been monitoring political rights and civil liberties worldwide since 1972.

Freedom matters.
Freedom House makes a difference.
www.freedomhouse.org

Related posts (automagically generated):

• November 27, 2008 — The Internet and the Struggle for Voice in Repressive Regime Contexts
  
• August 20, 2008 — Silencing online speech in Tunisia
• August 9, 2008 — صفحات من تاريخ الكفاح القلمي بتونس منذ… 87 عاما
• July 12, 2008 — GVsummit08: Defending Free Speech Online
• July 6, 2008 — قمة أصوات عالمية ببودابست: بإتجاه حركة دولية لمناهضة الحجب

La colonne « A » représente les entames de phrases, la colonne « B » l'affirmation, la colonne « C » le constat et la colonne « D » la portée relevée.

On peut commencer la lecture n'importe où sur la première colonne, puis passer à la deuxième colonne, quelle que soit la position de la cellule, et ainsi de suite pour arriver à la quatrième partie de la phrase (ex. A7, B6, C12, D18) Ont peut composer de la sorte un discours -des discours- entiers et peu importe l'ordre des phrases que l'on compose. Ce tableau n'est finalement que la synthèse de ce qui se lit, s'entend et se voit dans les médias tunisiens !

Ici le code source du javascript.

Copyleft Astrubal, Avril 2004, m-à-j, 29 mars 2009
http://astrubal.nawaat.org/

Related posts (automagically generated):

• February 13, 2009 — إسترتيجيات القمع و المقاومة على الشبكة التونسية
• January 12, 2009 — لقاء تلفزي حول المدونين العرب مع الصحفية نجاة شرف الدين
• December 16, 2008 — Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Syria Prevent blogger and journalists from Attending Free Press Conference in Beirut
• August 9, 2008 — صفحات من تاريخ الكفاح القلمي بتونس منذ… 87 عاما
• May 29, 2008 — À Casa j'ai pas vu Bush, mais j'ai parlé de Ben Ali

Related posts (automagically generated):

• August 9, 2008 — صفحات من تاريخ الكفاح القلمي بتونس منذ… 87 عاما
• September 22, 2007 — 404 الكاذبة
• March 20, 2004 — الإستقلال : من البيت إلى الشارع
• July 17, 2003 — Indépendance et liberté - II -
• February 13, 2009 — إسترتيجيات القمع و المقاومة على الشبكة التونسية

Related posts (automagically generated):

• January 18, 2009 — Gaza - Map of Bombing Intensity & Casualties, Dec. 27 -12 Jan, 2009
• January 14, 2009 — Mashup: Gaza Strip Attack Timeline
• February 8, 2007 — Ahlan Ezzayak !
• February 2, 2006 — ميونيخ

The guide outlines several methods of protecting one’s identity in order to avoid retaliation and can considerably reduce the risks that a blogger’s identity will be linked to his or her online writings through technical means.

In order to provide you with the most up to date information on how to blog anonymously, the guide has been updated once again so that all the tips are compatible with Tor’s recent updates.

This update introduces the Tor Browser Bundle, an open source version of a portable browser developed by Tor Project, that lets you use Tor with zero install. Tor Browser is a great pre-configured Tor bundle with self contained Mozilla Firefox browser for USB drives or any other portable media (SD Card, Hard Drives, Compact Flash Card).

If you’re going to pursue your blogging activities primarily from shared computers (like cybercafe computers) or if you’re unable to install software on a computer, please follow the steps on how to run Tor Browser Bundle without needing to install any software.

The update includes tips on how to acquire the Tor bundle if your internet connection blocks access to the Tor website. It also includes tips on what to do if you encounter problems connecting to the Tor network.

Please link to it, download it and help disseminate this important information. Feel free as well to help us translating the guide into your own language.

For further information please contact us at: advocacy [ at ] globalvoicesonline [ dot ] orgRelated posts (automagically generated):

• June 8, 2008 — دليل التدوين من أجل قضية الآن متوفر باللغة العربية
• February 11, 2008 — دوّن من أجل قضية
• November 14, 2008 — Internet Freedom in Egypt
• July 12, 2008 — GVsummit08: Defending Free Speech Online
• July 6, 2008 — قمة أصوات عالمية ببودابست: بإتجاه حركة دولية لمناهضة الحجب

Ce texte est un extrait de mon e-livre Borj Erroumi XL, publié ici sur mon blog en Octobre 2003 (l'elivre est disponible en ligne).

Un jour, dans le cadre d’une liaison amoureuse qui m’avait liée à une jeune tunisoise de la classe «graissée», lors d’un de mes délicieux mariages de plaisir, elle était venue me voir en m’amenant un bouquet de narcisses, acheté à l’un des pauvres enfants du souk de Bab Souika. Ce n’était ni mon anniversaire ni celui de ma mère et j’étais d’autant plus gêné que, hormis le fait que je détestais l’odeur des narcisses malgré la beauté du nom et de la fleur, je faisais partie de ces jeunes tunisiens timides qui se sentent embarrassés lorsqu'ils tiennent un bouquet à la main.

Bref, elle me l’avait présenté en me donnant deux baisers sur la joue - j’en étais devenu cramoisi- et en me disant qu’elle me les offrait à l’occasion de Saint Valentin. Moi, l’enfant des quartiers arabes, je ne connaissais ni Saint Valentin, ni les bisous sur la place publique. D’ailleurs, et entre nous, le seul saint français que je connaissais était Saint Germain du PSG, le club de foot parisien. Je lui ai donc demandé de m’informer sur ce saint et de me raconter son mémorial pour que Dieu nous recouvre de sa baraka. Elle, elle pensait que j’étais en train de me moquer d’elle parce que je lui ai dit que je n’ai jamais rencontré son nom ni dans mes lectures ni dans ma vie. Elle me disait avec toute la cajolerie de son dialecte franco-tunisien : « non…tu ne connais pas Saint Valentin, tu plaisantes, hein ! Allez Chadi ! yezzi milblada…je t’en prie…yezzi...arrête…» Je lui ai juré par Dieu, par son prophète et par tous nos saints des environs, de Sidi Mehrez à Sidi Bou Said El Baji, je suis même allé à jurer par le saint de la grotte, le plus vénéré des saints tunisois, Sidi Belhassen. Elle riait, mais elle ne voulait pas me croire.

Et puisque je ne savais pas qu’il s’agissait en fait d’un saint romain, je l’ai interrogée sur le lieu de son marabout pour aller au moins allumer une bougie ou faire brûler une pincée d’encens et lire sur sa tête al-fatiha. Là, elle a éclaté d’un de ces fous-rires qui laissaient deviner l’aisance de vie de certaines couches sociales en Tunisie. Puis ayant du mal à s’arrêter, elle m’a informé ce que j’ignorais… ce qui en fait m’avait vexé et surpris : le Saint Valentin était un saint chrétien, le jour où on le fête coïncide, par je ne sais quel secret cosmique, avec le début de la période des amours chez les oiseaux …oui les oiseaux et leur pariade ! Depuis, il est devenu, par je ne sais quelle coïncidence, la fête des amoureux !
Moi qui ne connaissais que la période de rut des chats errants et des chiens va-nu-pieds et sans maître, je savais aussi que l’amour aux yeux des nantis du monde signifiait souvent sexualité. J’ai cru alors qu’il était dans mon devoir de faire l’amour avec elle pour ne pas fâcher le Saint Valentin et pour ne pas décevoir mon amie, puisque je savais aussi, de par mon expérience et celle de plusieurs de mes amis, que la sexualité pour les gens de la classe huppée de la Tunisie était devenue une passion très sollicitée voire même une thérapie contre le stress, comme le yoga, qui les aide à supporter le « sous-développement » et « l’incivilité » de leurs concitoyens.

Avant de lui proposer de venir avec moi à Bizerte pour une cérémonie d’initiation au mariage du plaisir, une idée qu’elle a trouvé originale, j’ai tenu, pour réparer mon amour propre blessé par cette mésaventure, à aller demander aux jeunes entassés sur les terrasses des cafés de Bab Souika s’ils connaissaient, comme mon amie, Saint Valentin. Moi, qui prétendais être un amant parfait et un connaisseur de l’amour, moi qui étais plus vieux qu’elle, qui avait beaucoup voyagé et lu, je n’avais pourtant jamais entendu parler de ce saint. C’était devenu une affaire d’honneur et une obsession que de savoir si j’étais le seul, dans les lieux, à ignorer l’existence de cette fête des amoureux. Quant à elle, elle riait comme une folle tout en me barrant la route des terrasses arguant que ce n’était pas le meilleur endroit pour poser ce genre de questions et qu’il me fallait désormais me rendre aux quartiers huppés comme El Menzah, El Manar, Mutuelleville ou dans les banlieues nord de la capitale, à la Marsa et à Sidibou. Là tout le monde, paraît-il, bien sûr à part les vendeurs des fruits secs, connaissaient l’histoire de Saint Valentin par cœur, comme celle de Noël ou du nouvel an.

Ce jour-là, le voile qui m’a longtemps empêché de voir l’autre face de la Tunisie était définitivement tombé et j’ai réalisé que sous le même toit cohabitaient en Tunisie cinq groupes sociaux radicalement différents : il y a les noyés dans la culture et la langue française qui n’ont aucun contact avec l’expression culturelle arabo-musulmane; il y a ceux qui sont suspendus entre les deux cultures, arabo-musulmane et française, parlent les deux langues et se nourrissent des deux espaces culturels; il y a les arabisants fervents qui appartiennent à l’espace culturel arabe mais ne sont pas influencés par le religieux; il y a les absorbés par la culture arabe et islamique et infiniment influencés par le religieux; et enfin il y a ceux qui ne maîtrisent ni l’arabe ni le français et ne parlent qu’un dialecte pauvre en vocabulaire et en culture. Et ces derniers sont très, très nombreux.

La photo originale est de Bill Hocker.

Related posts (automagically generated):

• December 16, 2002 — La prison de l'amour
• August 9, 2008 — صفحات من تاريخ الكفاح القلمي بتونس منذ… 87 عاما
• February 22, 2008 — عشر سنوات من المنفى، هل تكفي؟
• February 17, 2005 — Joli moqueur !
• February 14, 2005 — Valentin à Bab Souika

Related posts (automagically generated):

• January 12, 2009 — لقاء تلفزي حول المدونين العرب مع الصحفية نجاة شرف الدين
• December 14, 2006 — تونس في التقرير الثاني عن حرية الإنترنت في العالم العربي
• June 7, 2007 — التكلفة الإنسانية لسياسة الرقابة على الأنترنت
• March 18, 2007 — أصداء المدونين المتمردين
• January 8, 2006 — نمو تجمّع المدونين المصريين يوسع حدود المعارضة

We all remember what the French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared, in his victory speech, shortly after winning the French presidential election in 2007:

I want to issue a call to everyone in the world who believes in the values of tolerance, freedom, democracy, humanism, to all those who are persecuted by tyranny, by dictatorships [...] I want to tell them that it will be France's pride and its duty to be at their side. [...] France will be on the side of the oppressed of the world. This is France's message, it is France's identity, it is France's history.

Election promises and sweet talks are notable for often being broken once a politician is in office. We will never forget the lie peddled by Nicholas Sarkosy on his second official visit to Tunisia (April 2008) : "Today, the sphere of liberties [in Tunisia] is progressing (…) I have complete confidence in your will to continue to enlarge the space of freedom in Tunisia." Not a single word about human rights violations in Tunisia!

Last year I wrote a blog post about how France voted for Ben Ali and how it was accordingly to the traditional "Politique Africaine" of France.
This year, I'm wondering whether under the leadership of Barack Abama, the United States, who enjoys good relations with Tunisia, a country praised as "a counterterrorism ally", will change its policy? Will Barack Obama have the ability to create better foreign policies based on ideals and respect, and not based on self-interest and safety? Can he stop US assistance to repressive regimes, "soft" dictators and "moderate Arab regimes"?

Related posts (automagically generated):

• May 4, 2008 — Sarkozy a voté Ben Ali
• July 15, 2007 — la France sera du côté des dictateurs
• December 10, 2003 — To eat or not to eat, that is the right…question !
• June 8, 2008 — بالأحمر كفناه
• December 1, 2007 — Vidéo de la conférence BEN ALI, 20 ANS : ÇA SUFFIT !