Over at The Arabist, Issandr El Amrani ruminates on Facebook’s role in Middle Eastern politics, a subject I’ve had my eye on for quite some time. Drawing on the recent example of Egyptian reformer El Baradei and his enormous Facebook following, El Amrani marvels at the level of Facebook use for activism in the [...]

First, governments blocked Blogspot. Then they blocked Facebook, and then Twitter. And just when technophiles all over the globe started groaning, a couple of governments got a bit wiser to social media and, rather than block the entire platform for the transgressions of one user, began blocking individual accounts instead. Notably, this has happened in [...]

The six-month jail sentence handed to Tunisian journalist Taoufik Ben Brik by a Tunis court on 26 November was an attempt to settle scores against one of the most defiant critics of a regime that has been unrelenting in its determination to eradicate independent journalism.
President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s war on the independent press [...]

What are we to make of it when Ben Ali, Tunisia’s much venerated president and ruler of the Palace of Carthage, is prepared to accept only 89.62 per cent of the vote? And this from someone more used to commanding the kind of figures associated with voting in Soviet times. A commentary by Hamid Skif
President [...]

Le 20 octobre 2009, Zouhaïer Makhlouf, un militant des droits humains et correspondant du site web Assabil Online [en arabe, comme les liens suivants] a été arrêté pour avoir publié un reportage vidéo en ligne sur la pollution environnementale à Nabeul (Dar Chaabane El Fehri), une ville de la côte nord-est de la Tunisie.

On October 20th, 2009, Zouhaïer Makhlouf, a Tunisia Human rights activist and correspondent of Assabil Online website has been arrested for publishing a video report online about the environmental pollution in Nabeul (Dar Chaabane El Fehri), a coastal town in northeastern Tunisia. [...]

Voici les résultats du scrutin présidentiel du 25 octobre 2009. L’analyse de ces mystérieux chiffres est à suivre.

En attendant, je dénonce cette mascarade électorale, et je demande à son excellence Mr. Le président Ben Ali de refuser catégoriquement ces résultats, et de crier fort à la fraude. 89,62% ! C’est clair comme de l’eau de [...]

Nos gouvernants, qui sont censés parler et agir en notre nom, devraient être aussi les garants et les vecteurs d’un ensemble de principes et de valeurs qui nous unissent et nous définissent en tant que citoyens tunisiens. Aujourd’hui, je n’aime pas l’image de nous-mêmes que nous renvoient nos gouvernants, et ne me reconnais pas dans [...]

We must put an end to tyranny and humiliation. Tunisian taxpayers’ money is being spent to maintain the status quo of the oppression machine. Real progress is dramatically slowed down due to the waste and mismanagement of our money.
Tunisia does fit to stand next to the civilized and free nations. We have room to grow, [...]

Due to capital flows restrictions, shallow financial markets and conservative exchange rate policies, the Maghreb—Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia—escaped the first wave of the global crisis, unlike most developing regions. However, it has been severely affected by dramatic falls in commodity prices, world trade, remittances, [...]

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today protested to the Tunisian government over the action of police who laid siege to the offices of Tunisian Syndicate of Journalists and assaulted the union’s President after he tried to enter the building.
“This is heavy-handed and violent interference in journalism,” said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. “It is [...]

La Fédération Internationale des Journalistes prévoit de mener une enquête approfondie des événements concernant une réunion controversée organisée il y a quelques jours et durant laquelle une direction pro-gouvernementale [...]

[...] Torture remains pervasive in detention centres, particularly those of the State Security Department, the organisation warned, and statements allegedly obtained under torture are being accepted by courts as evidence to convict defendants. Incommunicado detention is also being covered up with officials falsifying arrest documents. [...]

Although Tunisia has actively sought to develop its information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure, the government continues to pervasively block a range of Web content and has used nontechnical means to impede journalists and human rights activists from doing their work. The filtering of political content and restrictions on online activity has [...]

Held in Geneva in late June, the conference of the International Association of Tunisian Expatriates (IATE) provoked the ire of the Tunisian authorities. Several human-rights activists and lawyers were intimidated or assaulted by plainclothes police at the Tunis-Carthage airport just for having attended the Geneva meeting and backing the basic rights of hundreds of exiled Tunisians to return home.