Non a la censure - Aginst online censorship in tunisia

Dear Mr President Z.A.B.A
I am pleased to receive your message from pactejeunesse.tn– pleased because I, as many other young Tunisians, am now full with hope- a hope for a president willing to listen to our cry for help and act upon it.

Please allow me to start my letter by thanking you for all what you have done for us.

Tunisians might never entirely realize what a difference you’ve made these last 3 decades for our dear country. Your footprints will be marked in bold in every history book and will never be erased.

In this letter, I am reaching out to the person who once said enough with a broken government; the person who risked his life for the inevitable change: a change once designed to lift us from an exhausted, corrupt nation to a nation where every citizen can enjoy freedom.

I am not sure about the fate of this letter, perhaps it might never land on your desk for you to read. Perhaps it will find its way to you carrying our desperate plead for a pass to the free world: A world where we can celebrate freedom that no tyranny can shadow or take away.

Mr. President, I understand that freedom can be very harming if not used properly, and I can’t think of any other reason why we still can’t exercise freedom at its fullest in Tunisia. I am aware of the fact that free access to information over the internet might be used by nefarious people who wish nothing but harm to us. It is a known fact that Internet had and is being used by extremists to introduce their evil legacies and recruit confused youngsters.

Mr. President, the architects of internet censorship are simply depriving our people from one of their basic human rights: access to common, public and universally shared knowledge. And as a Tunisian citizen, I demand that these architects should come forward for a public hearing in front of our congress immediately. Furthermore, if these actions were ever found unconstitutional, then they should be indicted.

Mr. President, we can not compete with developed nations when we aren’t trusted with internet yet. We can not invent new technologies or improve existing ones when companies like Tunisie Telecom censors one of the most innovative and promising technologies so it can control the telecommunication market and make more profit. Such actions should be revised and challenged by antitrust laws and regulations and reversed if found unethical or illegal.

When you came out to the Tunisian people in November 7th 1987 with your new visionary statement, you stated that Tunisians reached a maturity level that allows them to dictate their own fate. That statement was a promissory note inherited by every Tunisian and we would like to cash that check today.

Mr. President, let’s move our country forward and reserve a spot in the developed countries world. Let’s show Tunisian people how much their government trusts them. Let’s obey the people’s call and remove all types of censorship, starting with internet.

Live long Tunisia!
Live long Freedom!

Source : http://blog.tunisien.org