29 Mar 12 | Middle East and North Africa
The Tunisian Ministry of Interior has issued a ban on protests on Habib Bourguiba Avenue in Tunis, the capital’s main avenue. The ministry claims that it took such decision following complaints received from commercial and touristic businesses located on the avenue, as well as from citizens “over violations committed during some protests”.
“The Ministry of Interior has decided to prohibit protests, marches, and all forms of collective expression on the entire Habib Bourguiba Avenue as of the release of this communiqué”, said the ministry on 28 March.
The decision of the Ministry came few days after a group of Islamists calling for the implementation of Islmaic law gathered on the avenue on 25 March, not far away from a cultural gathering of Tunisian artists, and actors who got together to celebrate World Theater Day. The artists claim that they were assaulted by some of the Islamist protesters, something the Ministry of Interior denies. “During these two manifestations, no acts of violence were registered”, said the ministry in a communiqué released on 25 March.
The prestigious Habib Bourguiba Avenue, once a touristic and commercial attraction, turned into an epicenter of protests in January 2011 when thousands of protesters demanding the fall of the regime of Zeine el-Abidin Ben Ali assembled there. Right after the ousting of former President Ben Ali, a protest culture flourished all over the country, and Habib Bourguiba Avenue has been regarded as a symbol of rebellion.
27 Mar 12 | Middle East and North Africa
Living in a conservative society, where homosexuality is illegal, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community in Tunisia faces enormous pressures. Gays and Lesbians in Tunisia often keep quiet about their sexual orientations, and it is challenging for them to freely express themselves.
The 2011 uprising has had little effect on the status of the LGBT community. It has nevertheless allowed them to express themselves via Gayday Magazine, the first magazine dedicated to gay issues in Tunisia.
“It was difficult to have such venture prior to the revolution due to censorship. Key words used on the magazine could be easily picked up by the censor’s filters”, said Fadi Krouj, editor in chief of the magazine, who prefers not to use his real surname.
The magazine which was launched in March, 2011, seeks not only to combat homophobia, and offer support to the LGBT community in Tunisia, but also aims at bringing change at the legal level.
“Among our main objectives are abolishing the law criminalizing homosexuality and drafting another one that criminalises discrimination and homophobia”, explained Fadi to Index. The magazine has received threats in the shape of emails and Facebook comments. He adds:
“They claim that gay rights are not among the demands of the revolution and that we are opportunists. The last thing we want to do is distract the nation from achieving its democratic transition. We just want to make sure that we will have a place in the new Tunisia, because we’ve had enough with living in closets
Though there is still a long way to go for the LGBT community in Tunisia, Gayday magazine can be considered as a step forward. Silenced for so long, this community now has the opportunity to express itself freely, at least for the moment.
14 Mar 12 | Digital Freedom, Middle East and North Africa
Yesterday was Tunisia’s first National Day for Internet Freedom, the day also commemorates the death of cyber dissident Zouhaier Yahyaoui, who died seven years ago at the age of 37.
Via his website TUNeZINE, Zouhair criticised the corrupt and autocratic regime of former president Zeine El Abidin Ben Ali. Despite using a pseudonym Ettounsi (The Tunisian in English) he was tracked down and arrested on 4 June 2000 and a court in Tunis later sentenced him to two years in prison for “publishing false information”, “non-authorised use of an Internet connection” and “theft from an employer.”
In November 2003, as a result of international pressure, authorities granted him conditional release but Yahyaoui had already spent 18 months behind bars. He faced serious health issues after suffering torture and abuse during his imprisonment and on 13 March 2005 he passed away following a heart attack.
Yahyaoui won numerous international awards for his fight for net freedom. In his memory, and in recognition of his cyber activism, and his sacrifices for a more democratic Tunisia, 13 March is now the National Day of Internet Freedom in the country.
Since the 2011 uprising, Tunisia has come far when it comes to net freedom. Netizens are enjoying an uncensored web, and they are free to say whatever they want without fearing any government censorship, or repression. Restrictions on launching websites and obtaining domain names have also been loosened. But Tunisia is still “under surveillance” on Reporters Without Borders’ “enemies of Internet List”.
Indeed, a military order issued in May, 2011 demanding the filtering of Facebook pages criticising the army (the pages are no longer censored now for technical constraints), and the legal action taken to force the Tunisian Internet Agency (ATI) to filter pornographic content on the web have launched a heated debate about whether red lines should be drawn for net freedom. Earlier this year Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki said:
There should be red lines limiting freedom of speech…these red lines should not be used as pretexts for censorship…the lines should be debated and accepted by all
In an interview given to Index on Censorship, Moez Chakchouk, CEO of the Tunisian Internet Agency admitted that there have been demands to filter around 50 FaceBook pages for “defamation”, and for “spreading false information”.
While Tunisia celebrates its first national day for net freedom, the fight for an uncensored web seems far from over.
23 Feb 12 | Middle East and North Africa
In a period of less than three months, Zakaria Bouguira, a Tunisian blogger and medical student, has been assaulted twice by police.
The first time was on 13 November last year as he was videotaping police officers physically and verbally abusing Moroccan supporters of the football team Al-Widad Al-Baydhawi at Tunis Carthage airport. He told Index: “I saw police officers beating handcuffed people. There was yelling, and blood. It was horrifying. I took my phone to film the assaults, in order to publish it later on Facebook. Police caught me, and surrounded me. They pushed me to the floor and started kicking and beating me. Then they took me to a police station room, outside the airport, with the Moroccan supporters, where I spent about 30 minutes there. During that period, I was verbally and physically abused. Then they transferred me to another room, where I was beaten again.”
Bouguira said the assaults lasted from two to three hours. He also recalled how state media came to report on what happened that night at the airport and how its journalist sought to manipulate public opinion. “They fabricated their own story (…) A journalist of Al-Wataniya TV 1 [state owned television] asked the security forces to change the clothes, tainted with blood, of the Moroccan supporters. They changed their clothes, took them to another room, and the supporters were filmed with their faces against the wall. They embellished the story. They described the Moroccans as vandals, and represented the police officers as honourable men.”
He went on: “I remember there was a Libyan person who was arrested for possessing bullets, and he was being investigated. The same journalist videotaped the bullets, and when I came back home, and watched the TV report, they added the snapshots of the bullets to the report on the Moroccan supporters. They were seeking to manipulate public opinion.”
On 20 January Bouguira says he saw Isam Dardouri, one of his attackers, and the general secretary of the Syndicate of the Internal Security Forces, in Habib Bourguiba Aveue in downtown Tunis. He went to talk him. “It was stronger than me. It was just for me, to heal myself. I needed to say what’s in my heart. I told him that he had assaulted me and that he was an unjust man,” he said.
The second time, Bouguira was assaulted was on 1 February, when he was taking part in a protest in support of Interior Ministry histleblower Samir Feriani. Again, the blogger came face to face with Dardouri and sought to confront him. “He was looking at me, and laughing. He was provoking me. I took my phone and filmed him while saying ‘this is Isam Dardouri, who assaulted me along with the Moroccans at the airport’; he is not ashamed of himself.”
Some hours later, Bouguira was arrested and abused by police. He adds:
I was surrounded by police officers in plain clothes; they pushed me, beat me, insulted me, and handcuffed me, as if I were a criminal. In the police station, they would beat me again for about five minutes. I was detained for six hours for nothing.”
The blogger has lodged a complaint against his attackers. Meanwhile, Dardouri is planning to lodge a complaint against him.
“Now he wants to lodge a complaint against me. He is accusing me of defaming and harassing him,” says Zakaria. “He has the whole union by his side. Police in Tunisia has never been in the service of the citizen. Police are in the service of the police, even before the state. I don’t think they would abandon each other. But I’m not going to abandon my rights. I’m not going to surrender. If they want to arrest, kidnap, or kill me…let them do it. If Zac dies, there will be another 20 Zacs. These practices have to stop, and we should stand in their way.”
