Nawaat

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Nawaat
Formation2004
TypeActivist Organization
HeadquartersTunis, Tunisia
Official language
French, Arabic, English
Key people
Sami Ben Gharbia, Riadh Guerfali, Sufian Guerfali, Malek Khadraoui
Websitenawaat.org

Nawaat (

Arabic word meaning core. Nawaat has received numerous awards from international media organizations in the wake of the Arab Spring wave of revolutions throughout the Middle East and North Africa
.

History

Early years

Nawaat was co-founded by

Ben Ali in 2004, which the incumbent won with 94.49% of the popular vote.[8] In addition, Nawaat aggregated a variety of commentaries exploring the role of Islam in government and contemporary relations between Arab nations and the Western world. Nawaat also featured contributions from human rights advocates from the Arab world as well as Iran and other nations with large Muslim populations. The site's staff often wrote opinion pieces castigating Arab governments with harsh censorship laws or promoting anti-censorship initiatives. The editors also called regularly for the release of imprisoned free-speech advocates including Alaa Abd El-Fattah
and Abdel Monem Mahmoud.

Coverage of self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi and Sidi Bouzid riots

Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali
fled the country with his family, posting news stories from international news sources, Arab journalists, and Tunisians inside the country and abroad. The site kept the focus on the underlying causes of the revolution as well, including restrictions on personal freedoms, imprisonment of opposition members, and economic stagnation.

TuniLeaks

Tunileaks was launched on November 28 on Nawaat.org, one hour after the whistle-blowing site Wikileaks unleashed cables on Tunisia. The first release contained 17 cables issued from the US Embassy in Tunisia, and the majority of them revealed exchanges between the embassy and the US State Department. Those revelations mainly dealt with the neglect of human rights in Tunisia and the restrictions on freedom of expression. The Tunisian government rapidly blocked access to TuniLeaks, first blocking https://web.archive.org/web/20150221084506/https://tunileaks.appspot.com/ (without the https), then on the next day blocked Google App Engine's IP Address (209.85.229.141) in order to block Tunileaks under https as well. Additionally, the electronic version of Al Akhbar, a Lebanese newspaper, was also censored in Tunisia for containing some cables released by Tunileaks.[11]

Other support to revolution

One of Nawaat's innovative contributions during the revolution was identifying and translating videos and personal accounts of potential media interest that were distributed on

Ben Ali government and the videos provided by Nawaat were one of the most reliable sources of valuable video footage during the revolution.[10] Nawaat also utilized its extensive network of internet activists to assist with mobilization of protesters through social media. Sami Ben Gharbia
noted that one of the goals of Nawaat was to bridge the gap between collective action through social media and more traditional protest movement tactics.

Post-revolution activities

On the day of Ben Ali's flight from

Arabic language Wikimedia proliferation.[13]

Nawaatleaks

On March 27, 2014, Nawaat.org

Tor technology and accessible in Arabic and French. In collaboration with GlobaLeaks, the Nawaat team created a special page that deploys a number of open source applications and techniques which protect those leaking confidential documents and files. This software even protects whistleblowers from the Nawaat team itself, which thanks to these techniques will not be able to identify the identity of those who leak information through their address emails, IP addresses, names or their geographic locations. To provide them with further protection, the Nawaat team will as usual and before the publication of any leaked confidential document, delete all meta data which increases the possibility of identifying the electronic source of documents in its different formats: audio, video clips, photos or texts.[15]

Facts and figures

Notable Founders

Global Voices project, and founding TuniLeaks, exclusive WikiLeaks on Tunisia, by bringing WikiLeaks into the closed society of pre-revolutionary Tunisia, and pumping it through Nawaat Group Blog.[17]

Riadh Guerfali is a prizewinning Tunisian blogger, also known online by his pen name "Astrubal". He received the NetCitizen prize which is awarded by French press freedom campaigners Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Internet giant Google, for his work to promote freedom of expression on the Internet.[18]

Awards

Nawaat has won many major awards starting from 2011 for the role it played prior to, during the Tunisian Revolution and after.

  • The Reporters Without Borders Netizen Prize[19]

Nawaat was awarded the Reporters Without Borders Netizen Prize, on the eve of the World Day Against Cyber-Censorship. It is an award that goes to a Netizen, a blogger, online journalist, or cyber-dissident who has helped promote freedom of expression on the Internet. The winner receives a 2,500 euros prize. Nawaat won against finalists from Bahrain, Belarus, Thailand, China, and Vietnam. This annual award is sponsored by Google.[20]

Nawaat won "the Index on Censorship Media Award" due to its project Tunileaks, a joint project with Wikileaks that dealt with Tunisian affairs and that confirmed, with cold documents, the widely criticised corruption of President Ben Ali's regime, and helped focus public discontent.[21]

  • The Electronic Frontier Foundation 2011 Pioneer Award[22]
  • The Digital Power Index 2012 [23]
  • Nawaat was awarded by the National Union of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT) with the best interactive website prize for 2015.
  • Arab eContent Award - Declined by Nawaat

Nawaat won the Arab eContent Award in the e-Inclusion & Participation category, an initiative of The World Summit Award (WSA). Nawaat declined the award, however, and refused to attend the Bahrain IT Expo 2011 Opening Ceremony to receive it from the Deputy Prime Minister of

ruling family.[24]

  • Prix EFF 2011 Pioneer Award - Electronic Frontier Foundation
    Prix EFF 2011 Pioneer Award - Electronic Frontier Foundation
  • Prix Net-citoyen 2011 - Reporters sans frontières
    Prix Net-citoyen 2011 - Reporters sans frontières
  • Index on Censorship 2010
    Index on Censorship 2010
  • National Union of Tunisian Journalists Award 2015
    National Union of Tunisian Journalists Award 2015

References and Links

References

  1. ^ Thorne, John. "Tunisia's new freedoms don't apply to all". The National. Abu Dhabi Media. Retrieved 16 April 2012.
  2. ^ a b c MacKinnon, Rebecca. "Tunisia and the Internet: A chance to get things right?". Consent of the Networked. Retrieved 16 April 2012.
  3. ^ Prince, Robert. "Nawaat.org (Tunisian Alternative News Website) Receives Prestigious 11th Annual Index on Censorship Media Award". Colorado Progressive Jewish News. Retrieved 16 April 2012.
  4. ^ "Digital Activism: Arabs Can Do It Themselves-Interview with Sami Ben Gharbia" (PDF). Perspectives: Political Analysis and Commentary from the Middle East. Heinrich Böll Stiftung 2011. Retrieved 16 April 2012.[permanent dead link]
  5. ^ "Website Evalutation: Nawaat.org". Valueis.com. Retrieved 16 April 2012.[permanent dead link]
  6. ^ a b Abrougui, Afef. "The internet is freedom": Index speaks to Tunisian Internet Agency Chief". Index: The Voice of Free Expression. Archived from the original on 14 April 2012. Retrieved 16 April 2012.
  7. ^ "OpenNet Initiative Country Profile: Tunisia". OpenNet.Net. Retrieved 16 April 2012.
  8. ^ Ireland, Douglas (30 November 2004). "The Forgotten Dictatorship". DIRELAND. Retrieved 22 April 2012.
  9. ^ Sadiki, Larbi. "Tunisia: The Battle of Sidi Bouzid". Al-Jazeera. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
  10. ^ a b Zuckerman, Ethan (6 May 2011). "Civil Disobedience and The Arab Spring". My Heart's In Accra. EthanZuckerman.com. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
  11. ^ "Tunisia: Censorship Continues as Wikileaks Cables Make the Rounds". Global Voices Advocacy. 7 December 2010.
  12. ^ Randeree, Bilal. "Inside the Arab Spring". In Depth: Features. Al-Jazeera. Retrieved 24 April 2012.
  13. ^ Ben Hassine, Wafa (19 March 2012). "Youth-led Wiki Workshop Held at Nawaat HackerSpace". Nawaat.org. Retrieved 24 April 2012.
  14. ^ Gharbia, Sami Ben. "Nawaatleaks: نواة تطلق موقعا خاصا و آمنا لتسريب الوثائق السرية". Nawaat.
  15. ^ Abrougui, Afef. "Tunisian Blog Launches Whistleblowing Platform". Global Voices Online. Retrieved 6 May 2014.
  16. ^ a b c http://www.valueis.com/visit/jtv.com/www.nawaat.org[permanent dead link]
  17. ^ "The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers | Foreign Policy". Archived from the original on 2012-11-03. Retrieved 2017-03-10.
  18. ^ "Business - Blogger wins freedom of speech prize". France 24. 10 March 2011.
  19. ^ "World Day Against Cyber-Censorship: new "Enemies of the Internet" list - Reporters Without Borders". rsf.org.
  20. ^ "Nawaat: Reporters Without Borders Awards the 2011 Netizen Prize to Tunisian Bloggers | Center for International Media Assistance". Archived from the original on 2012-04-29. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
  21. ^ a b "Free Expression Awards 2011: New Media". indexoncensorship.org. 11 March 2011.
  22. ^ "EFF Pioneer Awards 2014". Electronic Frontier Foundation.
  23. ^ "Power Index: Revolutionaries". Newsweek.
  24. ^ "Nawaat declines the Arab eContent Award 2011". Nawaat. 2 May 2011.

External links

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