Lawyers, academics, politicians, civil society, more than one-hundred fifty organizations, Tunisians and internationals were part of the movement to FreeAzyz Amami and Sabri Ben Mlouka: democratic transition demands that the misuse of judicial power inherent in police state be replaced by the precedence of an independent justice.
Tunisian Heritage is Not for Sale: Privatization Threatens Country’s Historic Sites
In a rather low-key, overlooked way, the Tunisian Minister of Culture, Mourad Sakli, has announced yesterday on a radio program on Jawhara FM that the ministry plans on privatizing Tunisian heritage sites. The plan is to have private companies lease the sites for periods of 25 to 30 years.
‘US Promotes Network to Foil Digital Spying’ …while Sayada Builds Network to Foster Digital Justice
That the Mesh Sayada case study has been presented in the context of US surveillance operatives is relevant to one discussion but is meanwhile a superficial and imprecise presentation of the project for citizens who participated in its development and to whom it belongs. The mesh network was not brought to Sayada; it was built in Sayada as a locally-devised, collaboratively-implemented initiative to promote Open Source and Open Data principles.
One Hundred Days of Lentitude – Jomâa on His Work in Office
Citizens, politicians, analysts, and union members expecting concrete decisions and well-elaborated intitiatives in Jomâa’s press conference last Wednesday felt either marked disappointment or resignation to the Prime Minister’s consistently long-winded and half-hearted commitments to real reform.
Activist Azyz Amamy and Sabri Ben Mlouka Arrested, Law 52 Polemic Continues
Thirty-one year old blogger and activist Aziz Amami was arrested yesterday, May 12, 2014 in La Goulette, a beachside neighborhood of the capital. Some time between ten and eleven o’clock Monday night, Amami and his friend, photographer Sabri Ben Mlouka, were purportedly pulled over and detained for the possession and consumption of marijuana.
One Hundred Days of Lentitude – Assessing Jomâa’s Work in Office
If its delivery is distinctive, the overwhelming message from public figures and ordinary citizens is the same: the gravity of the economic crisis—whether the exacerbated image of a political media campaign or an accurate portrayal of the country’s disequilibrium— is such that the Prime Minister has been called upon to transcend the drawn-out bickering of a politicized National Economic Dialogue, to take actions in measure with the severity of the situation that he has expounded in his discourse and communication with Tunisia and the international community, to devise a roadmap that sets out long-term, sweeping structural reforms.
Chikly Primed for Discovery and Tunisians, Tourists Have Yet to Step Foot on the Island
In spite of being a national heritage site in plain view of the shores of Berges du Lac in Tunisia’s capital, the islet has never been officially open to Tunisians. Needless to say it is newsworthy—though curiously not in Tunisian media—that the recent completion of a study signals the imminent opening of the forgotten island to the public.
May 1, 2014 – Parliament Passes Electoral Law, Citizens Invoke Right to Work
As ANC deputies finalized the electoral law at Parliament chambers in Bardo, citizens filled capital streets with their presence, carrying posters and flags, chanting and singing the national anthem in honor of the international Labor Day holiday.
Tunisia: Independence of HAICA should be protected
ARTICLE 19, BBC Media Action, Community Media Solutions (CMS), The Euro -Mediterranean Foundation for Support to Human Rights Defenders (EMHRN), […]
Revitalizing Tourism? The ‘Start-up Democracy Team’ Spins a New Image for Tunisia
What does foreign media make of the Ministry of Tourism’s recent decision to regulate the entry of Jews carrying Israel passports into the country? How will a national debate that encompasses questions of ethnicity, religion, secularism, history, and international relations influence potential tourists to Tunisia? For better or worse, the Djerba controversy and Karboulmania that have overcome Tunisia have yet to titillate the international community; if they have penetrated foreign media, the effects on potential tourists appear yet negligible, and reports are charged with neither the spit nor flame of online articles and commentaries from Tunisian journalists and readers alike.
Prime Minister Reprimands Parliament: Don’t Sabotage Tourism in Tunisia
In the wake of shock and outrage regarding the military tribunal’s recent verdict in the Martyrs of the Revolution Affaire, the ANC seems to have become a veritable scapegoat for the growing pains of democratic transition, its interworkings the perceived epitome of mediocrity, incompetency, inefficiency, and obsoleteness.
The National Union of Tunisian Journalists Elects a New Executive Board
480 out of 873 union members voted in the elections, presumably due in part to the absence of those who were prevented from attending the event because they did not have the obligatory member cards. Neither the Nawaat nor other online sources dwell on what would appear to be a significant administrative error…
The Martyrs of the Revolution Affair– State Justice at Odds with Public Opinion
Is the ‘Martyrs of the Revolution Affair’ that has inundated Tunisian media over the past week symbolic of an already-failing post-revolutionary justice system? Or does it instead reflect the reappearance of the same sort of political corruption that thrived under old regime? Either way, the gaping division between a recent decision announced by Tunisia’s military tribunal and public opinion has Tunisians up in arms or at least on edge about the political, legal, and moral integrity of the State.
Agricultural Dialogue on the Outskirts of Tunisia’s National Dialogue
Will continuing threats of strikes, milk siphoned across borders and spilled onto streets, and official demands for reforms within the dairy industry inspire more interest in prioritizing the needs of a suffering agricultural sector? Until now, articles and current issues of agricultural significance prompt little public response in comparison to other highly mediatized and provocative and agriculturally-relevant issues such as immigration, smuggling of contraband, border tensions, unemployment, international economic cooperation and trade.
Weekly Political Review – Twisted and Tangled in the Hands of Politicians: National Holidays and Economic Recovery in Tunisia
Whereas abroad, «it is whispered in the halls of Washington that Mehdi Jomâa’s profile pleased [Americans] because it is that of a ‘pragmatic businessman,’» his discourse addressed to Tunisians pertaining to the country’s delicate economic situation has «stirred gossip and accusations of exaggeration and conspiracy theories.»
Jomâa and Barack Open the Strategic Dialogue – American Media on the Tunisia-US Partnership
Perusing the articles available in American media on Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa’s visit to Washington, one is faced with the gradation of quality and specificity and attention to detail that exists among different news sources…one is reminded that The Washington Post is a reliable outlet for fluffy pieces about the US’ benevolent role in the so called developing world, for sweeping generalizations about terrorism, the Arab Spring, democracy, etc. Unsurprisingly, most US news sources follow in this line of reporting.
Weekly Political Review – The Ebb and Flow of Democratic Transition in Tunisia
With Article 15 on the table for debate, peaking intensity of conflicts in Medenine over the closure of Ras Jedid, and Jomâa’s glowing reflections about his visit to Washington, and widespread public cynism about the volatility and apparent inefficiency of politics and politicians, the past week in politics in Tunisia captures the give-and-take, all-but-constant process that is ‘democratic transition’.