Internet Censorship in Tunisia - Censorship Following The Tunisian Revolution

Censorship Following The Tunisian Revolution

The provisional government of national unity that took over following Ben Ali's departure immediately proclaimed complete freedom of information and expression as a fundamental principle and on 17 January 2011 abolished the information ministry. Internet censorship was immediately lifted, as President Ben Ali promised in his 13 January address, but some online controls were still in place in early February.

In May the Permanent Military Tribunal of Tunis ordered four Facebook pages blocked for attempting "to damage the reputation of the military institution and, its leaders, by the publishing of video clips and, the circulation of comments and, articles that aim to destabilize the trust of citizens in the national army, and spread disorder and chaos in the country." This resurgence of Internet censorship lead to the resignation of blogger and political activist Slim Amamou from his post as Secretary of State for Youth and Sport on 23 May.

On May 26 a group of lawyers obtained a court order forcing the Tunisian Internet Agency (ATI) to block porn sites on the grounds that they posed a threat to minors and Muslim values. The ATI went to court in an attempt to block the order, but its request was rejected on June 13. The ATI began to comply with the court's order in stages on June 15. On August 15 a Tunis appeals court upheld the previous decisions requiring the ATI to block access to pornographic websites. The ATI is undergoing an appeals process with country's highest court on the grounds that it cannot uphold the ruling because it lacks the financial and technical means to implement a sufficient filtering and censorship system.

Reporters Without Borders fears that porn-site filtering could lead to further reversals in recently lifted censorship policies. They assert that the provisional government’s generalized, undefined filtering infringes on the principles of Network neutrality and promises made by the Tunisian High Commission for the Realization of Revolutionary Goals, Political Reforms, and Democratic Transition after the Revolution. The ATI’s appeals process is not yet complete.

Tunisia held elections on 23 October 2011 to create a post-revolution Constituent Assembly. Mongi Marzouk was appointed as Tunisia’s Minister of Communication Technologies to the newly formed Jebali Cabinet on 20 December 2011. Marzouk’s early political career demonstrated his will to maintain the provisional government’s proclamation to freedom of information and expression. On 4 September 2012 at the National Forum on Internet Governance, Marzouk formally lifted Internet censorship in Tunisia and announced that Tunisia has seen the “end of (error message) Ammar 404.”. Two days later Tunisia attended the Freedom Online Conference in Nairobi, a platform for coalition members to further the agenda of Internet governance. During the Conference, Tunisia officially became the third African member in the international coalition. Tunisia continued its promotion of uncensored Internet at the 2012 ICT4ALL Forum on September 17–20 in Hammamet. There, Marzouk declared that bilateral and multilateral discussions would resume in lieu of ICT4ALL’s Forum policy recommendations for Tunisia’s socio-economic development.

Cyber activists are skeptical of the new regime’s policies. Sleh Edine Kchouk, President of the Tunisian Pirate Party, believes that continuous Internet monitoring and Ben Ali-era practices are still present. Following Marzouk’s announcement to lift Internet censorship, Kchouk notes “Tunisia has always embraced advanced technologies when it comes to the virtual world, in theory. But in practice, it’s completely different.”. In September, the United Nations appealed to Tunisia to operationalize its freedom of expression and information policies with respect to the media. Despite the country's latest Internet policy reforms, censorship is allegedly enacted upon media activists that fail to comply with Jebali Cabinet member’s ideals of Tunisian “tradition” and “culture.”