Ed Webb's List: Tunisia_Media_2014

• While not all countries in the Middle East and North Africa filter the Internet, censorship across the region is on the rise, and the scope and depth of filtering are increasing. Testing has revealed political filtering to be the common denominator across the region; however, social filtering is on the rise.
• Based on ONI testing results, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, and the West Bank do not currently filter any material; however, none of those are without regulations.
• Bahrain, Iran, Syria and Tunisia have the strictest political filtering practices in the region.
• Although increased filtering is the rule and unblocking the exception, there are a few instances of the latter since our last report. Syria has restored access to Arabic-language Wikipedia, Morocco has lifted a ban on a number of pro-Western Sahara independence Web sites, and Libya has begun to allow access to previously banned political sites. Additionally, Sudanese filtering of sites containing LGBT, dating, and health-related content has lessened since the last round of ONI testing.
• Iran is among the strictest filtering regimes in the world, pervasively filtering political and social content, as well as Internet tools and proxies, and substantially filtering content related to conflict and security.
• In the Middle East and North Africa, the filtering of social media and social networking sites has become relatively commonplace. For example, YouTube and Facebook are currently filtered Syria and Tunisia, and Orkut and Flickr are blocked in Iran and the UAE. Iran also filters a local social networking site, Balatarin.com, and the UAE and Saudi Arabia filter certain YouTube videos, though not the entire site.
• Blocking Web sites in a local language is approximately twice as likely as blocking sites only available in English or other international languages.

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• The social media giant finds itself under countervailing pressures after the uprisings in the Middle East. While it has become one of the primary tools for activists to mobilize protests and share information, Facebook does not want to be seen as picking sides for fear that some countries — like Syria, where it just gained a foothold — would impose restrictions on its use or more closely monitor users, according to some company executives who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were discussing internal business.

• Last week, Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, urged Facebook to take “immediate and tangible steps” to help protect democracy and human rights activists who use its services, including addressing concerns about not being able to use pseudonyms.

   In a letter to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, Mr. Durbin said the recent events in Egypt and Tunisia had highlighted the costs and benefits of social tools to democracy and human rights advocates. “I am concerned that the company does not have adequate safeguards in place to protect human rights and avoid being exploited by repressive governments,” he wrote.
• This is an incredible challenge and an incredible opportunity for Facebook, Twitter and Google,” said Ethan Zuckerman, a senior researcher at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, where he works on projects about the use of technology and media in the developing world. “It might be tougher for Facebook than anyone else. Facebook has been ambivalent about the use of their platform by activists.

• Twitter and YouTube, which is owned by Google, have been more willing to embrace their roles in activism and unrest, Mr. Zuckerman said.

   After the Internet was shut down in Egypt, Twitter and Google actively helped protesters by producing a new service, speak2tweet, that allowed people to leave voicemail messages that would be filed as updates on Twitter. Biz Stone, one of Twitter’s founders, used it as an opportunity to emphasize the positive global impact that comes with the open exchange of information.

   When the Internet was back up, YouTube, working with Storyful, a social media news curation service, took the thousands of videos pouring in from the protests in Tahrir Square to help people access and share the information as quickly as possible on CitizenTube, its news and politics channel.
• the Global Network Initiative, a voluntary code of conduct for technology companies created in 2008 that requires participating businesses to take reasonable steps to protect human rights

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• “The police aim to break into the accounts of users to know who communicates with whom and on what subject,” blogged Astrubal, the Tunisian co-editor of the independent www.nawaat.org website, “with the end objective of dismantling the citizen journalist networks that formed spontaneously after the Sidi Bouzid protests.”
• This systematic stifling of independent opinion over the years has turned many Tunisians to the internet for news denied by the mainstream press, keeping the Tunisian online censor, popularly nicknamed Ammar 404, particularly busy.
• Tunisia was the first Arab state to embrace the internet, and to no-one’s surprise, the first to systematically repress it.

• 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.

   

  But with national media either repressed or full square behind the state, it remains the main conduit for news of any kind from Tunisia, especially for foreign media, chief among them al-Jazeera, which has given substantial coverage to the protests, even though its operations in the country are strictly limited, requiring it to rely on video content and updates from social networking sites.

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• maintenance of the  pre-revolutionary media landscape: No new TV station has been allowed.  Just as no daily newspaper has emerged. New titles are edited by  political parties and appear as weeklies, most of which incorporate the  standard of the tabloid press. After a 9-days hunger strike by Radio  Kalima’s manager, Omar Mistiri, twelve regional radios out of 74  candidates were finally selected in late June by the National Authority  for Information and Communication Reform (INRIC), a temporary media  advisory board. Now, the selected radios are waiting for the  governmental permission.

   

  At the institutional level, the disappearance of the Communication  Ministry does not lead, right now, to more media autonomy.  Pre-revolutionary media managers are mainly the same: CEOs, Editors and  Chairmen of Board moved from flattery of the ousted president and his  system to a doubtful celebration of the “revolution”.

   

  In the state-owned media, the turnover of managers is conducted  without any transparency just like under the dictatorship. Changes look  more like a consequence of power balance between the different clans in  the current government than a nascent process towards a democratic media  system.
• field reporting, which was longtime banned from or depreciated in the  official media
• The legal status of old private media,  especially those belonging to the former president family, is still  unclear. Some of them are under jurisdictional managers, but INRIC  excluded them for the moment from any ethical obligations. Hannibal TV,  owned by a relative to Leila Trabelsi, was involved in many ethical  infringements to the Ethical Code like slandering or fake news, before  and particularly after the revolution. Larbi Nasra, the Hanibal TV  owner, seems to play a political role by receiving political leaders and  airing many reports about his own charitable actions. Fethi Houidi,  Information Minister under Ben Ali, is still Nessma TV’s CEO. Moez  Sinaoui, former Nessma PR man, was nominated as the Interim Prime  Minister’s spokesman
• media reform, like the reform of the police and justice, is not  considered a major issue in the democratic transition. Right now, the  debate about a media sector reform is polarized between the journalists  (the journalists’ syndicate SNJT and some individual initiatives) and  the government. Strangely, the question of the journalists’  “responsibility” is debated in the same words as before the revolution.  The issue normally comes up when the story of journalists differs from  the official version, especially when police and army are concerned.
• the new law from February 2011, which regulates the  establishment and function of the INRIC, is reminiscent of the one that  established the High Council of Communication, the advisory body of the  former president Ben Ali. There are “private” discussions between INRIC  and the High Council of Political Reforms to propose new laws to  regulate the media sector before the parliamentary elections. These  discussions neither go along with public hearings nor are they reported  by the media.
• In the Press Institute, the unique academic institution for teaching  journalism, a tiny reform was decided in April on a two-days meeting.  None of the professional bodies or NGOs engaged in the fight for freedom  of expression was involved in this reform.
• the Tunisian Agency of External  Communication (ATCE) that had managed the propaganda system outside of,  but also inside Tunisia for the last 20 years
• The fall of the sophisticated system of surveillance and censorship  allowed a renewal of the blogosphere and news websites. Even the  traditional media are trying to make their websites interactive or to  create their electronic versions. Nevertheless, there is no significant  shift in terms of production transparency and responsiveness. Critical  articles about media often look more like reckoning between journalists  than attempts to make media more accountable. In addition, the  authoritarian temptation came back with the decision of the military  court to ban four websites which were accused of offending the army.

• Background: MA in Pre-Revolutionary Tunisia

   

  Under  Ben Ali’s rule most broadcasters and newspapers were owned by one of  Ben Ali’s relatives or remained close to the official political agenda  either because of press freedom restrictions or for economic reasons.  These structures had far reaching consequences for the formation of the  journalistic field in general and media accountability practices in  particular. Though media accountability recurred in the professional  discourse, it did not develop a systematic opposition to the  governmental discourse, which mainly focused on responsibility towards  the regime. Institutions such as a media council (Conseil Supèrieur de  la Communication, CSC) or a Journalists’ Association (Association des  Journalists Tunesiens, AJT), that might have played a role in holding  the media accountable to ALL media stakeholders, were co-opted by the  regime. Yet, some initiatives online like boudourou.blogspot.com took  the chance of the Internet as a slightly freer space to remind Tunisian  media of their accountability towards the people, though with little  impact due to hard Internet censorship and repression of cyber  activists

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• Jridet announced his intentions to start the hunger strike on May 3, on the occasion of the World Press Freedom Day, and asserted that unfair distribution of paid public advertisements and other announcements was the main reason for the the action.

   

  “Favoritism, party affiliation, and political loyalty are still governing the process of attribution of public advertisements,” he said.

• After the revolution, the ATCE was abolished and no other body was created to take over the allocation of public announcements to different media outlets.

   

  “Today, we are back to same old practices of the ATCE…The most obvious example is that Al Fajr, [the newspaper of the Ennahdha Party] takes a larger share of public ads, and needless to ask about why,” Jridet told Tunisia Live
• report charged the media advertising sector in Tunisia with “complete absence of ethical rules and codes of conduct.”
• “The only newspapers which were able to survive after the revolution are partisan newspapers, which is alarming. Two scenarios are awaiting new newspapers, either to disappear or to be sold to private capital,”
• Nabil Jridet told Tunisia Live that Lotfi Zitoun, political counselor to Hamadi Jebali, called him personally and asked him to stop the hunger strike.

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• “Social media is a positive asset to Tunisian media. It is a source of information for the Tunisian people and the most trusted source of news,” said Hichem Snoussi, a media expert and member of the National Committee of Information and Communication Reform (INRIC).

   

  “These sites are the hardest thing for the government to control. Peer-to-peer information sharing destroys the possibility of monopolizing information,” Snoussi continued
• “These sites can be bought by people who want influence. They can also foster rumors,” he said.
• “Right after the revolution, media regained the trust of Tunisians. The state television channel got 40% of their audience back but now, it’s losing people’s trust again as the government exerts control over the media once more. It’s an issue of trust. People don’t trust traditional sources of news anymore.”

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• Prior to and throughout the popular uprisings that shook Tunisia and ousted former president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011, Tunisian bloggers, cyber-activists and social network users took it upon themselves to take on roles unfilled by state-owned media.
• “A blogger today is expected to change the world,”
• citizen-journalism
• “Unfortunately, transparency seems to be new to our culture… I am disappointed open data has not become successful nationwide still, since the revolution,”

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• A statement released Monday by three groups involved in the process to select members of the High Authority for Audiovisual Communication (HAICA) held the “President of the Republic and his counsellors accountable for the prevarication and delaying tactics that have marked the process of setting up [the] HAICA.”

   

  The statement was signed by the National Union of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT), the National Authority for Information and Communication Reform (INRIC), and the General Culture and Information Union. They assert that the delay has occurred for political reasons.
• Monday’s statement accuses the government of claiming “excessive power for itself,” evaluating nominations on “purely political and ideological grounds,” and excluding qualified candidates. The government announced the beginning of the HAICA nomination process after a general strike by Tunisian journalists in October 2012.
• information revealed in an archive has disqualified candidates at the last minute
• “It has to be a capable body,” said Manssar, “because it is very powerful and has the authority to shut down a station.”
• Ultimately, the Presidency believes that the authority to appoint the membership of HAICA is the President’s alone. After the establishment of HAICA, though, the President would play no role in regulating the media and would not impinge on its freedom, said Manssar.
• The statement threatened that the three organizations would take the matter to court if the government announced a HAICA membership that failed to meet the standards of the 2011 law.

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• Acts of intimidation such as the travel ban placed on blogger Olfa Riahi, who leaked potentially damaging information about Foreign Affairs Minister Rafik Abdessalem, and the four-month sentence handed down to Nizar Bahloul, director of the website Business News, for allegedly defaming a former Tunisian ambassador, are attempts “by the government to suppress and terrorize journalists, so that they will impose on themselves self-censorship and will write according to the government’s expectations,” Hamrouni said.

• Are you kidding ? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
   Olfa Riahi defamed the minister and his cousin and insinuated falsely that he was having an affair, and on top of that, she said that she published those false allegations on purpose and that she is sorry.

   

  Bahloul is an ex RCD who was financed by the Ben ALi/Trabelsi clan who was living off the misery of Tunisians for years while promoting the dictator. Right after the revolution he published an article that maliciously defamed a former ambassador that was acquitted by the justice system for corruption allegations that were tagged on him before the revolution.

   

  I have not seen any censored subject nor an intervention of the executive in media affairs. All we are seeing is old guard and ex RCD journalists fighting for their old privileges of corruption and lack of integrity.

   

  We have a bunch of lazy journalists publishing work without substance, integrity nor honesty. They do not understand their role nor their rights. We have journalists that attend political meetings not to cover it but to participate in it. We have journalists that voice their partisan opinion in an impolite way, we have journalists that clearly voice their antagonisms against political parties in their written pieces and TV programs, we have journalists that defame and mock other politicians…and finally we have in this same website “journalists” that write about the only 2 transvestites we have in Tunisia and portray their issues as a human rights issues that trumps issues of poverty, violence, political decadence, education curricula etc…

• Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki in New York, September 26, 2013. Image courtesy Marzouki’s Facebook page.

   

  A court has ordered the suspension of printing, sale, and distribution of a the so-called “black book,” produced by the presidency, which accuses Tunisian and foreign journalists and public intellectuals of working with the former authoritarian government, according to state news agency TAP.

   
• A court has ordered the suspension of printing, sale, and distribution of a the so-called “black book,” produced by the presidency, which accuses Tunisian and foreign journalists and public intellectuals of working with the former authoritarian government
• Marzouki has earlier said to BBC Arabic that “the book was not ready to be published” and that it was “stolen from the publisher.”

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• each time Marzouki pardons hundreds of convicted criminals, the names of those not released draw renewed attention. Two such individuals are rapper Ahmed Laabidi and blogger Jabeur Mejri
• “Legally speaking, Kafon couldn’t have possibly enjoyed the presidential amnesty since he has had no trial and his file case was stuck in the Ben Arous court due to administrative obstacles,”

• Kafon’s detention did not gain much media attention until “Houmani” became a hit.

   

  “At first only close friends of Kafon and some alternative media spoke of his arrest,” Azyz Amami, an activist and member of Kafon’s support committee, told Tunisia Live. “Later on, official channels such as Nessma and Tunisian national television developed an interest in the story, but only when Kafon himself grew to fame.”

• Jabeur Mejri, who has been described by Amnesty International as “a prisoner of conscience,” was sentenced on March 22 to seven and a half years to prison for posting cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed online.

   

  Mejri’s lawyer Ahmed Mselmi has already submitted two amnesty requests and previously told Tunisia Live that only the president can decide on the pardon.

   

  “The difference between Kafon and Mejri is that in Mejri’s case there was already an appeal which makes the question of a pardon possible,” Ghazi Mrabet said.
• Last September, Marzouki told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York that he is waiting for the “right political moment” to release Jabeur.

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• A majority of Tunisians choose Facebook as their preferred source of news, according to a survey conducted by Northwestern University Qatar and Harris Interactive, a globally-oriented research firm. The study, conducted earlier this year among adult Tunisians from various regions of the country, reported that 52 percent of those surveyed refer to Facebook as their primary news outlet.
• Tunisia was the only country to rank Facebook as the top source of news, according to the survey.

• The next popular news source in Tunisia was radio station Mosaique FM (selected by 37 percent of respondents as their top choice of news), followed by the Tunisian television channel Ettounisiya TV (selected by 33 percent). 
• “Those three [selections] are definitely on the winners’ podium,” he told Tunisia Live on Thursday, adding his stance that Ettounisiya TV had recently overtaken Mosaique FM for second place in Tunisians’ choice for media delivery.
• social media have emerged as “checks” on traditional media outlets in the country
• a minority of Tunisians (42 percent) feel television is generally reliable, and even fewer feel the same about radio (32 percent). Many Tunisians are critical of national television due to what they perceive as hidden political agendas.

• As for print, only 13 percent of Tunisians surveyed believe that the country’s newspapers are credible sources of news.

   
• after decades of censorship, many Tunisians have not affirmed the importance of cross-checking their news to verify information. Zargouni added that this problem is exacerbated by “segmentation” within Tunisian society

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