[x-pubpol] Tunisia Announces Intention to End Internet Censorship

[Joly MacFie]

http://techpresident.com/news/wegov/22855/tunisia-announces-intention-end-internet-censorship


BY LISA GOLDMAN <http://techpresident.com/blogs/lisa-goldman> | Thursday,
September 13 2012

*Updated*

Tunisia is lifting Internet
censorship<http://allafrica.com/stories/201209070049.html>.
Information and Communication Minister Mongi Marzoug made the announcement
on September 4 at the National Forum of Internet governance.

Under the deposed authoritarian leader President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali,
whose ouster in January 2011 triggered the Arab Spring, censorship of the
Internet was extensive and draconian. Reporters Without Borders classified
Tunisia as an "enemy of the Internet," while local Internet activists
nicknamed the censorship Ammar
404<http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2008/09/24/tunisia-404-not-found/>,
for the "404 Not Found" message they so often received when visiting
various news, social media and information sites.

Censorship was eased after the Ben Ali regime was deposed, with access to
popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as well
as popular news sites like Al Jazeera. But some restrictions remained in
place.

Minister Marzoug
promised<http://www.telecompaper.com/news/tunisian-government-ends-internet-censorship>
"Tunisia
will prove to the world that it has truly ended censorship."

But Tunisian cyber activist and President of the Tunisian Pirate Party Sleh
Eddine Kchouk expressed considerable skepticism in response to the
minister's announcement.

“Tunisia has always embraced advanced technologies when it comes to the
virtual world, in theory. But in practice, it’s completely different,” he
stated. Kchouk expressed dissatisfaction with continuous internet
monitoring by the government and believes that the old practices of ousted
president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali are still persistent.

*Update:* Khaled Koubaa <http://khaled.koubaa.net/>, Policy Manager North
Africa at Google, adds that he sees "positive signs" coming from the
government.

One of the key positive sign is the National Internet Governance
Forum<http://www.ati.tn/en/actus_details.php?id=288> (IGF)
to be organized next year. But to be sure that we will really "end"
Internet censorship in Tunisia we will need is to organize this National
IGF in a multi-stakeholder way which will help to have a real discussion on
key policy change in the actual Internet policies. The big challenge will
be to put in place an open and participatory policy making process that
will govern the Internet in Tunisia so the ecosystem will naturally reject
any tentative of censor back the network. Combatting the censorship should
be at the policy and standards level not only at content level. A policy
that prohibit usage of a technical standard (like VoIP for example ) is
simply censoring the right of users to use the technology to express
themselves.

*Personal Democracy Media is grateful to the Omidyar Network for its
generous support of techPresident's WeGov section.*
-- 
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