[LM_NET] Tunisians conduct online protest

[Andy Carvin <acarvin@EDC.ORG>]

Hi everyone,

Right now there's an extraordinary online protest coming out of Tunisia. 
The website, Yezzi.org, is a collection of photos of Tunisians holding 
up signs in various languages, each with a message directed to Tunisian 
President Ben Ali. Though the phrase they use, "Yezzi, Fock!," may 
appear to be a misguided attempt to curse out a certain swear word in 
the English language, it roughly translates to "General Ben Ali, enough 
is enough!" in Tunisian Arabic. In the words of the protest's organizers:

     "This expression in Tunisian dialect intends to transmit a clear 
message to the dictator in order to give up power, because we consider 
it is enough. For us Tunisians, who are always banned from freely 
reaching independent information and who are violently forbidden from 
any peaceful demonstration; this kind of demonstration is a new form of 
peaceful protest."

The site, launched yesterday, contains dozens of photos of Tunisians 
venting their frustration at President Ben Ali. They note that free 
expression is technically protected under Tunisian law, though not in 
practice, so they're using the website to exercise that right:

     "[T]here's no Tunisian legislative provision prohibiting the right 
to express our opinions. Absolutely not, this demonstration is covered 
by the fundamental guarantees provided as well by the Tunisian 
Constitution as by the International Conventions ratified by Tunisia. 
All the demonstrators on Yezzi.org make use of their right to express an 
opinion in saying to the General Ben Ali 'It is enough!'"

The Tunisian authorities, not surprisingly, see the matter differently. 
They've already started blocking the site, so only those of us outside 
of Tunisia can see it. One can only imagine what might happen to these 
cyber dissidents if they were caught by the Tunisian police. No matter 
the response, though, it serves as another reminder of the ackwardness 
of having the World Summit on the Information Society hosted in Tunisia. 
-andy


-- 
-----------------------------------
Andy Carvin
Program Director
EDC Center for Media & Community
acarvin @ edc . org
http://www.digitaldivide.net
http://katrina05.blogspot.com
Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com
-----------------------------------

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