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 […]
Networks 62
Tunisia: Facebook user jailed for spreading rumors liable to disrupt public order
On Saturday, July 4, 2009, The 8th Criminal Chamber of the Court of First Instance in Tunis has condemned a Tunisian professor, Dr Khedija Arfaoui, to eight months in prison for spreading rumors, on the social networking website Facebook, liable to disrupt public order.
Saudia Arabia leads Arab regimes in internet censorship
Saudi Arabia leads the field among Arab regimes that practise internet censorship, blocking website content ranging from pornography to politics, […]
Herdict: a useful tool to report censorship is now in arabic
The web site from Harvard’s Berkman Center called “Herdict,” which allows worldwide internet users to report about web sites being […]
Wolfram Alpha: Google killer?
No, Wolfram Alpha end result is completely different from Google’s. Wolfram Alpha is as its tagline says: “a computational knowledge […]
Apple “Get a Mac” Web ad: First In Customer Experience (New York Times website)
Encore une pub qui fait davantage de pub au support que l’inverse.
Si toutes les pubs étaient aussi intelligentes, Nawaat devrait à son tour se faire de la pub :)
Apple “Get a Mac” Web ad: First In Customer Experience (New York Times website)
Arab censors swim against the information tides
It was supposed to be a reform of a bad piece of legislation that not only muzzled the press but […]
Tunisia: Blogger’s home raided, laptop and CDs robbed
The house of the Tunisian journalist and blogger Zied el-Heni has been raided last night (April 10, 2009). In a […]
Video Interview: Aljazeera’s Web-inspired business strategy
I first met Mohamed Nanabhay, the 29-year-old South African, during the 3rd Annual Aljazeera Forum in Doha, Qatar, in 2007. Mohamed is a prominent blogger, a friend and a colleague from Global Voices covering Qatar where he is based. Mohamed is the former Aljazeera head of New Media and the mastermind of the Aljazeera’s successful invasion of the Web.
Interview with Robert Guerra about the Freedom on the Net Index
A new report on Internet freedom was launched by Freedom House, an organization which monitors freedom around the world. The “Freedom on the Net” study surveyed 15 countries on the basis of two key components: access to Web and mobile technology and the free flow of information through it. The report covered events that took place in the years 2007 and 2008, identifying new emerging threats to Internet freedom.
Freedom on the Net Index: Tunisia ranked worst, behind Cuba
Since traditional media are censored and tightly controlled by the government, the internet has been used as a relatively free and uncensored means of airing political and social opinions, and as an alternative field for public debates on serious political issues. This uncontrolled freedom of expression has led to the creation of an extensive censorship and filtering system.
L’ADSL en Tunisie : Akamai donne du travail à la TAP et à MM
Dans son dernier rapport concernant les connexions haut débit, Akamai place la Tunisie dans une position très flatteuse. Et voici ce que probablement la TAP et MM escamoteront du rapport : « It is not clear what drove the double digit increases in broadband percentages during the second quarter — it could be related […]
Tunisia’s bloggers defy state censors
Foreign tourists know Tunisia for its sunny beaches, ancient ruins and one of the Arab world’s most liberal societies. But for Tunisians, life is a daily tiptoe through a minefield of political taboos enforced by a vast security apparatus and heavily censored media. Now the country’s drive to embrace the internet is giving Tunisians an unexected new outlet to challenge authority.
North Africa: are political websites more likely to get hacked?
Political opposition websites in North African countries, particularly in Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania, are becoming a primary target of hackers. This new phenomenon of defacing opposition and dissident websites emerged first in Tunisia, where at least 14 websites and blogs were targeted between 2007 and 2008, and seems to be spreading across the region as a result of the attempt to muzzle free […]
You, too, can defeat cruel dictators online
The extensive palace complex of Tunisia’s septuagenarian dictator, President Zine el-Abidine ben Ali, for example, is off limits to his citizens. Anyone caught taking photographs of the vast complex are likely to be arrested. But cyberspace is beyond President ben Ali’s reach. There his palace is besieged by human rights activists.
Tunisian journalist sues government agency for blocking Facebook
Tunisian journalist and blogger Zied El-Hen filed a suit this week in a Tunisian court against the Tunisian Internet Agency for blocking the social networking Web site Facebook, according to a report by Reuters (Arabic). The journalist demands about $5,000 as a compensation for the damages which the blocking caused to him.
Activists Meet the Academy: GVO Summit Day 1, Session 4
Participants of the fourth session of Global Voices first day of its Summit 2008, discussed the tools to help create […]
Authoritarian governments can lock up bloggers. It is harder to outwit them
WHAT do Barbra Streisand and the Tunisian president, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, have in common? They both tried to block material they dislike from appearing on the internet. And they were both spectacularly unsuccessful. In 2003 Ms Streisand objected to aerial photographs of her home in Malibu appearing in a collection of publicly available coastline pictures. She sued […]
