Internet censorship in Tunisia
Internet censorship in Tunisia significantly decreased in January 2011, following the ouster of
The success of the
Censorship following the Tunisian revolution
- In 2012 the OpenNet Initiative found no evidence of Internet filtering in the political, social, conflict/security, and Internet tools areas.[5]
- In 2011 Reporters Without Borders listed Tunisia as "Under Surveillance".[6]
The provisional government of national unity that took over following Ben Ali's departure immediately proclaimed complete freedom of information and expression as a fundamental principle and on 17 January 2011 abolished the information ministry. Internet censorship was immediately lifted, as President Ben Ali promised in his 13 January address, but some online controls were still in place in early February.[7]
In May, the Permanent Military Tribunal of Tunis ordered four Facebook pages blocked for attempting "to damage the reputation of the military institution and, its leaders, by the publishing of video clips and, the circulation of comments and, articles that aim to destabilize the trust of citizens in the national army, and spread disorder and chaos in the country." This resurgence of Internet censorship lead to the resignation of blogger and political activist Slim Amamou from his post as Secretary of State for Youth and Sport on 23 May.[8][9]
On May 26 a group of lawyers obtained a court order forcing the Tunisian Internet Agency (ATI) to block porn sites on the grounds that they posed a threat to minors and Muslim values. The ATI went to court in an attempt to block the order, but its request was rejected on June 13. The ATI began to comply with the court's order in stages on June 15. On August 15 a Tunis appeals court upheld the previous decisions requiring the ATI to block access to pornographic websites. The ATI is undergoing an appeals process with country's highest court on the grounds that it cannot uphold the ruling because it lacks the financial and technical means to implement a sufficient filtering and censorship system.[10]
Tunisia held elections on 23 October 2011 to create a post-revolution
Cyber activists are skeptical of the new regime's policies. Sleh Edine Kchouk, President of the
Censorship during the Ben Ali regime
Prior to the
Ben Ali promised "a removal of internet restrictions" among several other promises in a speech shortly before he was forced out.[17]
Ammar 404 is the nickname Tunisian internet surfers use for the authority responsible for Internet censorship.[18]
In addition to filtering Web content, the government of Tunisia utilized laws, regulations, and surveillance to achieve strict control over the Internet. For example, journalists were prosecuted by Tunisia's press code, which bans offending the president, disturbing order, and publishing what the government perceives as false news. The government also restricted the media by controlling the registration of print media and licensing of broadcasters, refusing permission to critical outlets, and controlling the distribution public sector advertisement. Journalists are also charged in courts with vague violations of the penal code.[16]
Online dissidents faced severe punishment. For example, human rights lawyer Mohamed Abbou was sentenced to three and a half years in prison in 2005 publishing on a banned Web site a report in which he was accusing the government of torturing Tunisian prisoners.[16]
In a landmark legal case that challenged the Web filtering regime in the country, journalist and blogger Ziad El Hendi filed a legal suit against the Tunisian Internet Agency (ATI) for censoring social networking site Facebook. Facebook was blocked on August 18, 2008, then unblocked on September 2 at the Tunisian President's request. The Tunisian Union of Free Radio Stations and the Unionist Freedoms and Rights Observatory joined El Heni in the lawsuit and called Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to testify. The Third District Court of Tunisia, however, dismissed the case, in November 2008 without providing any explanation.[16]
In addition to being blocked in Tunisia, many opposition and dissident Web sites and blogs were victims of hacking attempts and in some cases, successful content removal, and shutting down of servers. Even though it was not clear who was behind these cyber attacks, many Tunisian opposition leaders believed it to be the government. For example, the independent news sites Kalima was hacked into and shut down in October 2008. The eight-year Arabic and French archives were completely destroyed. The site had been blocked since it was launched in 2000. The administrator of the site accused the government of being behind the attack because, as she told the Committee to Protect Journalists, "The only ones who benefit from this attack are the authorities." She also said, “I would not rule out the possibility that this act was committed by the secret services, with the aid of hackers or pirates based in Tunisia or abroad." The Web-based newsletter Tunis News and a blog run by a judge (TunisiaWatch) has been subject to similar attacks.[16]
Tunisia did not have specific laws to regulate online broadcasting. As a result, a group of journalists exploited this and launched Tunisia's first Internet radio station, Radio 6, on 10 December 2007 to mark the 59th anniversary of the World Declaration of Human Rights.[16]
Filtering during the Ben Ali regime
Web filtering in Tunisia was achieved through the use of a commercial software program,
A transparent proxy processed every HTTP request sent out and filtered out sites based on host names. Empirical evidence showed that NetApp hardware was used to implement the controls and NetCache.[19]
The OpenNet Initiative carried out tests in Tunisia using the ISPs Planet Tunisie and TopNet. Similar to 2006-2007 test results, 2008-2009 testing revealed pervasive filtering of Web sites of political opposition groups such as:
- Democratic Forum for Labor and Liberty (www.fdtl.org)
- Al-Nadha Movement (www.nahdha.info)
- Tunisian Workers' Communist Party (www.albadil.org)
- Democratic Progressive Party (pdpinfo.org)[16]
Also blocked were Web sites run by opposition figures such as activist Moncef Marzouki and Web sites that contain oppositional news and politics such as:
- www.nawaat.org
- www.perspectivestunisiennes.net
- www.tunisnews.com
- www.tunezine.com[16]
Web sites that publish oppositional articles by Tunisian journalists were also blocked. For example, ONI verified the blocking of the French daily Libération Web site in February 2007 because of articles by Tunisian journalist Taoufik Ben Brik critical of President
Also blocked were Web sites that criticize Tunisia's human rights record. These include the web sites of:
- Amnesty International (www.amnesty.org)
- Freedom House (www.freedomhouse.org)
- Reporters Without Borders (www.rsf.org and www.rsf.fr)
- International Freedom of Expression eXchange (www.ifex.org)
- the Islamic Human Rights Commission (www.ihrc.org)
- the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (www.hrinfo.org)[16]
Although the home page of
The prominent video sharing Web sites
- Psiphon (https://web.archive.org/web/20080101102040/http://psiphon.civisec.org/)
- TOR (https://www.torproject.org/)
- Anonymizer (www.anonymizer.com)
- email privacy service provider Steal the Message (www.stealthmessage.com)
- Guardster (www.guardster.com/)
- JAP (anon.inf.tu-dresden.de)[16]
The filtering regime pervasively filtered
Starting in May 2010, the popular
ATI's blocking of SIP traffic has made life very difficult for
Surveillance during the Ben Ali regime
The Tunisian authorities practiced different sorts of Internet surveillance and request that service providers such as Internet cafés be partners in controlling Internet use. For example, the authorities monitored Internet cafés, required Internet users to show IDs before they could use the Internet in some regions, and held Internet café operators responsible for their clients’ online activities.[16]
There was also technical surveillance where downloading or e-mail attachments went through a central server. In order to protect public order and national security, a 1998 post and telecommunications law allowed authorities to intercept and check the content of email messages. Filtering of e-mail messages of government opponents has been reported.
See also
- Decree Law 54 (Tunisia)
- International Freedom of Expression Exchange(IFEX-TMG)
- Internet censorship
- Freedom of Expression
References
- ^ Maktabi, Rima (16 January 2011). "Tunisia works to form new government amid tension". BBC News.
- ^ "Countries Under Surveillance: Tunisia" Archived 2011-10-02 at the Wayback Machine, Reporters Without Borders, March 2011
- ^ "Censorship fallout from the Arab Spring?" Archived 2012-01-26 at the Wayback Machine, Juliette Terzieff, The Future 500, 29 June 2011
- ^ "Insight: Social media - a political tool for good or evil?", Peter Apps, Reuters Canada, 28 September 2011
- ^ OpenNet Initiative "Summarized global Internet filtering data spreadsheet", 29 October 2012 and "Country Profiles", the OpenNet Initiative is a collaborative partnership of the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto; the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University; and the SecDev Group, Ottawa
- ^ Internet Enemies Archived 2012-03-23 at the Wayback Machine, Reporters Without Borders (Paris), 12 March 2012
- ^ "Reporters Without Borders in Tunisia: A new freedom that needs protecting", Reporters Without Borders, 11 February 2011
- ^ "Tunisia: Internet Censorship Makes a Comeback ", Afef Abrougui, Global Voices, 17 May 2011
- ^ "IFEX-TMG members alarmed by resurgence of Internet censorship and arrests", International Freedom of Expression Exchange Tunisia Monitoring Group (IFEX-TMG), 9 June 2011
- ^ "Tunis court upholds order requiring filtering of porn sites" Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, Reporters Without Borders, 16 August 2011
- ^ "Tunisia's Morning After Middle Eastern Upheavals", Bruce Maddy-Weitzman, Middle East Quarterly, Summer 2011, pp. 11-17
- ^ "Tunisia: Information and Communication Minister - 'Internet Censorship No Longer Implemented in Tunisia'", Tunis Afrique Presse, 6 SEPTEMBER 2012
- ^ "Tunisia: Sixth ICT4all Forum Closes", Tunis Afrique Presse, 21 September 2012
- ^ "Tunisia Announces Intention to End Internet Censorship", Lisa Goldman, 13 September 2012
- ^ "Tunisia should accept all UN recommendations on free expression, says IFEX-TMG", IFEX, 26 September 2012
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "Country profile: Tunisia". OpenNet Initiative. 7 August 2009. Retrieved 16 January 2010. This article incorporates text from this source, which carries a Creative Commons Attribution license.
- ^ "Tunisia President Ben Ali 'will not seek new term'". BBC News. 13 January 2011.
- ^ Lina Ben Mhenni (24 September 2008). "Tunisia: 404 not found". Tracking censorship and defending Internet freedom in Tunisia. Global Voices Advocacy.[dead link]
- ^ Beaupré, Antoine (2005-11-23). "Comment la Tunisie censure l'internet" (in French). Archived from the original on 2010-04-04.
External links
- Tunisia Monitoring Group (TMG) of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX)