IFEX- Tunisia Monitoring Group

Back in June 2010, on its seventh mission, IFEX -TMG ( The International Freedom of Expression Exchange- Tunisia Monitoring Group), released a report with 18 recommendations against Tunisia situation on political freedom. IFEX is a global network, comprising over twenty different organizations worldwide, dedicated to denouncing violations on human rights and freedom of expression, statewide and international. IFEX HQ is in Canada and the Organization was launched officially in 1992.

According to their own website, the Tunisia Monitorig Group was the most successfull mission so far: Monitoring & Advocacy in Support of Independent Human Rights Defenders in Tunisia (funded by European donors).  

After it was announced that the UN World Summit on INformatin Society was being hosted in Tunisia in 2003 for 2005, given the well known human rights violation historic on this country, immediately freedom advocacy groups started taking action.  

The background scene is a country with a dictatorship that rules over 2 generation long, being the incumbent only the second head of State in power, after independence (now in exile since the day before yesterday, in Rhiad). There are only three opposition media sources (newspapers): Al Mawkif, Tariq Al-Jadid and Mouwatinoun.

And to get the state subsidies they need to submit their advertising publishing criteria to the States censorship. One editor tried to claim reparations through the courts on a slur campaign from one of the pro-government, aligned newspaper (the state controled media does not need to advertise), but none of the complaints followed through in the courts.

Other red flags included parliamentary sessions tv broadcast shut down right before the opposition poses their questions. Newspapers editions have been seized and their distribution is limited to a few controlled kiosks.

Mokhtar Trifi, the president of the Tunisian League for Human Rights (LTDH), concluded, “it has become virtually impossible to express oneself in newspapers.”

 Other violations denounced by IFEX in their report for the Seventh Mission (January to June 2010, within a 30 months project that started in 2005), included: arrests on fabricated charges of terrorism, unhuman prisoners treatment and censorship on reporting on those same conditions; administrative sanctions on state subsidies to opposition newspapers and slur campaigns perpetrated by pro regime media and sponsored by authorities against free media; deliberate obstruction to justice and of public exposure for opposition media partners; forced closure of free media, confiscations and publishing channels obstruction, including sales; denial of new licenses to start activity submitted by free independent media; monitoring journalists, actors, intelectuals access to the internet (Bassam Bouneni is a blogger from Tunisia, based in Qatar whose posts have been constantly scrammed by the Tunisian authorities to prevent readers from accessing the material. Especially because the author claimed that Tunisia could be the forst country with the conditions to start a democracy in the region); physical coercion o journalists at their working place; confiscation of travelling documents and or sudden arreignments to court hearings on a short notice;  confiscation of books; blockage of an independent court and judicial system.

  

The paradox, according to the IFEX report is official rhetoric claims from the authorities (until January 14) in terms of the observance of the Law, namely during the World Press Freedom Day, each year, supported by the pro government media journalists in the Union, and on the other hand the fact that Tunisia has ratified all major Conventions on the human rights and freedom of speech domaines:

 

African Charter of Human and People’s Rights, adopted on 26 June 1981 by the 18th Summit of the Organisation of African Unity and which came into effect on 21 October 1986, was ratified by Tunisia on 16 March 1983.

 

 

 IFEX 18 final recommendations to the Tunisian government and authorities can be summed up as the following (June 2010):

Drop all charges against journalist Fahem Boukadous (alledged guilty of public inciting riot in Jan 2010)

release detained political prisioners that did not use violence of force

end persecution on former politica prisioners and their families

end practice of indiscriminated prossecution for fabricated accusations on the cultural and intelectual elite

repeal any laws that criminalise the use of peaceful freedom of speech, assembly and association (including the right of defamation)

Review 2003 legislation o anti terrorist measures, according to the UN 2010 Recommendations, lifting sanctions on human rights

Ensure the prisoners treatment goes according to the ANti Torture Convention ratified already by the State

Grant legal registration to Tunisian legitimate non governmental organizations

Stop restricting access to the Internet (allow journalists and activists access to information, including traveling, regarless of their politcal color)

Grant the Council the means to manage the magistrates career.

Annex 1: Sample of locally blocked websites in Tunisia:

 

 

 

 

 

 

SOURCE: OLPEC

 

 www.dailymotion.comwww.youtube.comhttp://www.aljazeera.net

http://www.afrik.com

New Websites and video sharing:

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) http://www.rsf.org

http://www.swissinfo.org

http://www.lematindz.net (Algeria)

http://www.elwatan.com (Algeria)

http://www.aafaq.org (USA)

http://www.tunisiawatch.com

http://www.kalima-tunisie.info

http://www.tunisnews.net

http://www.alhiwar.net

http://www.tunis-online.net

http://www.assabilonline.net

http://www.bouebdelli.org

http://www.cprtunisie.net

http://www.nahdha.info

http://www.albadil.org

http://www.pdpinfo.org

http://www.fdtl.org

http://www.liqaa.net

Front Line http://www.frontlinedefenders.org

(as of 28 May 2010)Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) http://www.anhri.net

World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) http://www.omct.org

 

IFEX http://www.ifex.org

Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network http://en.euromedrights.org/

Freedom House http://www.freedomhouse.org

Observatory for Freedom of Press, Publishing and Creation (OLPEC) http://www.olpec-marsed.org

The Initiative for an Open Arab Internet http://www.openarab.net/

 On its present edition, IFEX website expresses concern that the current martial law instate in Tunisia might undermine the freedom of access to the information on the internet that would otherwise be openly censored. Although two bloggers accused of reporting on the riots have been already released,the international community, namely the International Federation of Journalists, is calling on the imediate release of  Fahem Boukadous, under arrest since 2008 for reporting protestes in Gafsa. Radio Kaima journalists are still arrested and the Tunisian Bar Association, peacefully protesting for freedom of the judicial processes, have been reported dispersed by brutal police action.

 Altogether more than 60 killings have been confirmed over the the protests against government corruption.

 The Egiptian Organization for Human Rights , representing over 25 human rights organizations in the region calls fro the European Union suspension of talks with Tunisia about the ongoing negotiations for preferential treatment in commercial transactions withing the framework of Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreements. 

On a first analysis, freedom of expression has been used to ignite the social unrest, motivated by unemployment and the rise of commodities prices, through the informal use of online social networking tools, still under strong surveillance, as reported by IFEX, RSF (Reporters Without Borders) and IFJ (International Federation of Journalists), seconded by information divulged by CPJ (Committee to Protect Journalists):

 CPJ research shows that the Tunisian Internet Agency is “modifying web pages on the fly to steal usernames and passwords for sites such as Facebook, Google and Yahoo!,” deleting or compromising accounts and even using the information to locate bloggers and their network of contacts…In response to the government’s heavy-handedness online, rival attacks organised from abroad by the “hacktivist” group Anonymous (tagged on Twitter as #optunisia), hit Tunisian state-run websites early in the year, including those of the President, Prime Minister, the stock exchange and several ministries, reports Index on Censorship. (in Ifex.org).

According to the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) Slim Ammanou, cyber activist (now released) had been arrested for alerting the world to his whereabouts at the Tunisian Ministry of the Interior using Google Latitude

“The uprising has been hashtagged,” says Egyptian-born columnist Mona Eltahawy. “A stream of tweets, all including #Sidibouzid, flows through my Twitter feed every day in Arabic, English and French, carrying links to Tunisian blogs, video filmed by protesters and live updates from solidarity demonstrations in other Arab cities.”

“The conventional wisdom is that the alternative communications links offered by the internet and social networking on the web will have a limited effect on change in Tunisia,” said Jayasekera.”But with national media either repressed or full square behind the state, it remains the main conduit for news of any kind from Tunisia.”

 

 

Tunisian State adheres to certain statements of principles such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) whose Articles 8, 9, and 11 guarantee all citizens access to an equitable and fair justice system and recognise the presumption of innocence

 Ratified in 1969 the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The ICCPR underscores in Article 14 the necessity of State parties to uphold the independence of the judiciary so as to ensure the proper administration of justice.