Rights 224

Google Earth bombing for a free Tunisia

You’ve heard of Google bombing. Here’s an instant classic piece of Google Earth bombing, courtesy of the Tunisian opposition to a rather nasty dictatorship. The premise: That even despots like Tunisia’s Ben Ali want check out their house in Google Earth:-) His palace is now smothered with YouTube video testimonies by political prisoners (turn on the YouTube layer if it isn’t already).

Human rights videos besiege the Tunisian Presidential palace

Tunisia blocked access to both popular video-sharing websites, Youtube and Dailymotion, in order to prevent Tunisian netizens from watching video content featuring testimonies from former political prisoners and human rights activists. However, and as shown in this example, Tunisian cyberactivists are successful enough in besieging Carthage presidential palace, on Google Earth, with tens of human rights videos.

Tunisians convicted for trying to build hydrogen bomb

TUNIS, Tunisia: A court in Tunisia convicted 14 young Islamic militants Thursday of trying to build a hydrogen bomb and sentenced them to up to 14 years in prison, a lawyer said.

The suspects, who come from the North African country’s southern regions and range in age from 19 to 30, were taken into custody in November 2006 […]

Egypt: Facebooking the Struggle

After little less than a month following the April 6 strike, during which a number of prominent Egyptian bloggers and internet activists were arrested, preparations for the next round of a planned general strike to mark the 80th birthday of President Mubarak, on May 4, 2008, are currently spreading all over the blogosphere and the Internet. Blogger and activist Nora Younis shares some of her ideas with us about […]

CIA facility in Tunisia ?

From his prison cell in Bizerte (65km north of Tunis), The Tunisian prisoner Ramzi Bettibi managed to smuggle a very alarming letter that found its way on to the Internet (available in French) In his letter, Ramzi describes a secret detention facility near Bizerte city, where he has been interrogated by CIA and French-speaking agents about his alleged ties […].

The Story of Lofti Lagha, Prisoner 660

Overlooked in the reports about Guantánamo detainee Abdullah bin Omar, a Tunisian who, on Sunday, was sent back to the country of his birth, where there are fears that he will be subjected to torture and abuse, is the story of the other Tunisian who, shackled and bound, shared a US plane with him. Unlike bin Omar, who was represented by lawyers who have do […].

Internet and the Public Sphere: Tunisian Cyberactivism

The development of Internet in Tunisia comes to reconfigure the Tunisian political scene. Indeed, for a few years, one has noted in Tunisia new forms of activism, of expression of social criticism on Internet. This reappropriation of the technological developments leads to new militant practices developing independently of the traditional institutions (lef […].

Tunisia: Opening prisons to the world

As the technology becomes more and more accessible, the more of these kinds of sites will inevitably spring up, pulling together maps, case histories, background research documents, advocacy tools, and, yes, videos, and the simpler it becomes to try to shine a light… I’d be interested to learn of similar initiatives from around the world, so get in touch i […].

Communiqué de presse du 1er novembre 2005 – بيــان غـرّة نوفمبر

و في سياق تكثيف حملة “حريّة التعبير في حِداد” مع اقتراب انعقاد مؤتمر القمة العالمي لمجتمع المعلومات ينشر منشطي “يزّي” سلسلة أولى من أشرطة الفيديو الرامية إلى لفت إنتباه الرأي العام لخطورة أوضاع الحريات في البلد المضيف للقمة تونس. Et afin d’appuyer et d’intensifier la campagne « La liberté d’expression en deuil », les animateurs de Yezzi.org diffu […].