Archive for
November 17th, 2005


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WSIS: Defending Freedom of Speech in Tunisia 

a small portrait of this author Rebecca MacKinnon · 20:25

Despite the odds, we managed to pull off our “Expression Under Repression” seminar here at the World Summit For Internet and Society. This was largely thanks to the strong spine of our sponsors, the Dutch NGO Hivos, who fended off a phalanx of plainclothes police who tried to shut us down. The goons finally backed off after the Dutch ambassador intervened and warned of a diplomatic incident. Before we began, uncertainty and rumor reigned about whether we’d be allowed to hold the event at all. On Wednesday, as I mentioned in a previous post, the Tunisian authorities told organizers that the seminar’s theme had nothing to do with the “ICT for Development” theme of the conference, and was thus inappropriate. On the morning of the seminar a sign outside the room said it was canceled. It was not included in the official program, and a rumor heard from delegates who visited the UNDP pavillion claimed that people who showed up would get arrested. Our colleagues have posted some eyewitness accounts of the action here.

Speakers included Malaysian blogger Jeff Ooi, Chinese blogger Isaac Mao, Iranian blogger Hossein Derakshan, and Zimbabwean internet activist Taurai Maduna. Ethan Zuckerman blogged about the circumstances under which we opened the seminar and my opening remarks. (See my own pre-seminar notes here.) He also blogged some of the presentations: Isaac and Taurai. Jeff Ooi spoke eloquently about how blogging is helping to democratize a media environment in Malaysia in which the media has traditionally been dominated by the ruling party and its allies.

The Open Net Initiative ’s Technical Director Nart Villeneuve also gave an excellent presentation on how governments are filtering and censoring the internet worldwide. Nart is one of the authors of a new report on how Tunisia censors the internet - with the help of a U.S. software company. Here is his blog post about the issue. Tomorrow Ethan will lead a hands-on workshop to teach people how to circumvent this kind of censorship, and also how to blog anonymously.

Several Tunisian journalists in the audience challenged the validity of our subject matter, arguing that economic development and social stability are a priority over freedom of speech in poor nations.  Hossein, Isaac and Taurai strongly disagreed. Taurai pointed out that if people aren’t free to speak out when officials are stealing their food and misappropriating resources, they’re more likely to remain poor. Hossein agreed that poverty in many parts of the world is as much a product of repression and corruption than anything else, and that greater freedom of speech can empower citizens to pull themselves out of poverty.

If you read German, check out Markus Beckedahl’s account of the seminar here. Andy Carvin has this podcast of Hossein’s presentation on Iranian blogs and their socio-political impact.

Ethan also has an excellent post with updated photos on the parallel civil society summit held in downtown Tunis by democracy activists on Wednesday evening. Both he and I attended.

For other WSIS blogging by Global Voices community members, check out Jeff Ooi’s post on internet governance from a Malayisan perspective.

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Video Blog from WSIS: Negroponte's $100 Laptop 

a small portrait of this author Andy Carvin · 14:23
man examines the $100 laptop

Eight-minute video documentary of the prototype of Nicholas Negroponte's $100 laptop, which premiered yesterday at the WSIS summit in Tunis. Andy Carvin talks with the chief technology officer of the initiative and gets a first-hand look at this highly anticipated device.
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Pulse of the Saudi Blogosphere 

a small portrait of this author Ahmed Al-Omran · 08:51

This week was a little bit quiet at the Saudi blogosphere. Probably most bloggers have decided to the chance of the very nice weather in Saudi Arabia these days by camping in the desert or going to the beach. However, there were several posts of note, so let's take a look at what was interesting.

This week has witnessed two Saudi bloggers meetups. The first was in Jeddah, where eight bloggers gathered for coffee, and talked about Linux, college life, and blogging. Fouad al-Farhan has a detailed report (Arabic) from the meetup. Another mini meetup was taking place in Riyadh, with a “females only” theme.

One of the hot topics in the Saudi blogosphere for this week was about driving, however, no women included this time. Trilancer wrote about road dangers, and thinks it is “tragic that a road accident soon becomes the reason for more accidents.” He blames that on the state of roads, and also the people, “since years of lax traffic law enforcement has shown them that the traffic police are always, if at all, after somebody else.” Dotsson was almost in another accident. Meanwhile, TyT takes the time to explain a phenomenon he called Attack of the Camry Boys. “These kids are REALLY annoying on the road, driving at speeds no less than 150km,” he wrote.

Under the title, “Do you remember him?” Abu Joori writes (Arabic) about a year after the mysterious death of Yasser Arafat that he was the best representative for the Palestinian cause. Abu Joori also prays for the Palestinian people to be united, and to gain their right by having their independent state on the Palestinian soil. More questions come from Meesho, who was surprised to hear the news about building the first church in Qatar, and wonders if we need to do this just to please the Americans and Europeans (Arabic). “Or is it a weakness? A weakness in our religion, a weakness in our personalities?” she asks.

Now, let's check out our selection of random, quick snippets for this week: Saudi Eve talks about being a news-junkie. Trilancer did not like the design of Nintendo DS portable game system, so he has been working on a new design. And Fouad al-Farhan expects some changes in the cabinet, naming three ministers that he thinks would be replaced. He says if his expectations were wrong, he is going to close down his blog (Arabic).

Finally, here is a piece of philosophy by ubergirl87, who wants to be anonymous, but not left out. “When I'm anonymous, I could be anything to anybody. (…) When I'm left out, people know who I am, but don't relate to me, and I don't to them. It's like being the odd one out. Whereas when you're anonymous you're not one in the first place,” she writes.

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