Despite severe repression of freedom of expression over the decades, with writers and journalists who challenge the authorities regularly facing many forms of persecution including imprisonment and torture, a few individuals are willing to take enormous risks to protect the right to speak out. One of the most remarkable is Sihem Bensedrine, editor of the on-line magazine Kalima.
Bensedrine, who is also a founding member and secretary general of the Observatory for Defence of Freedom of the Press, Publishing and Creation (OLPEC) and the head of the National Council for Freedom in Tunisia (CNLT), is a leading light in the movement for free expression in Tunisia. She has suffered constant persecution by the Tunisian authorities over many years for simply pursuing her right to freedom of expression. In addition to having been subjected to constant harassment and police surveillance, the journalist and human rights activist has suffered severe beatings at the hands of the police. Also during June and August 2001 she was imprisoned for six weeks on charges of “defamation” and broadcasting “false news” for appearing in a London based Arabic TV station in an interview in which she discussed corruption in Tunisia. More recently, on 5 January 2004, Sihem Bensedrine was attacked in Paris as she was going to an internet café. She reports that she was approached be three men in the street including one whom was known to her who tripped her up, beat her and insulted her. Bensedrine claimed that the Tunisian political police were behind the assault.
Sihem Bensedrine had initially intended to publish Kalima as an independent newspaper in Tunisia. However, as she was unable to obtain the authority to do so from the Tunisian government, she decided to publish Kalima as an on-line magazine with the first edition appearing in October 2004. The website is however blocked by the Tunisian authorities within Tunisia and so can only be accessed outside the country. Websites which offer any resistance whatsoever to the regime of President Ben Ali are frequently blocked within Tunisia. Such is the case with international organisations such as Amnesty International and Reporteurs sans frontières as well as with websites initiated within Tunisia itself.
In November this year, Tunis will host the World Summit on Information Society. Koffi Annan the UN Secretary General, describes the WSIS as a “global gathering [which] will be a unique opportunity for all key players to develop a shared vision of ways to bridge the digital divide and create a truly global information society.” Tunisia’s poor record on freedom of expression and information makes it a controversial host for the summit. However it provides an opportunity to raise the problems that Tunisians face. As Bensedrine says ‘’ It should be known that the internet is the main window for Tunisians in this context of total lack of press freedom and communication. It is by the Web that Tunisians get information on what occurs in their country, it is there that they discover international solidarity or the fight of a handful of dissidents who dare to defy dictatorship."
Recommended Actions
Letters calling for an end to attacks against Sihem Bensedrine and other internet writers should be sent (preferably in French) to:
Président Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Président de la République, Palais
Présidentiel, Tunis, Tunisie, Fax: + 216 71 744 721
Sihem Bensedrine’s on-line magazine Kalima which is blocked within Tunisia:
www.kalimatunisie.com
International Freedom of Expression Exchange report on a mission to Tunisia in January 2005:
http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/64776/
WSIS site:
http://www.itu.int/wsis/
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