sami ben gharbia

My personal blog is at [fikra] فكرة (which means idea in Arabic). I'm the co-founder of nawaat, a Tunisian collective blog about news and politics, Cybversion a collective blog of documenting censorship in Tunisia and babtounes, a wordpress twitter client monitoring live tweets about Tunisia.

I'm was formerly Global Voices Advocacy Director.

Email sami ben gharbia

Latest posts by sami ben gharbia

Introducing Threatened Voices

  3 November 2009

Today, Global Voices Advocacy is launching a new website called Threatened Voices to help track suppression of free speech online. It features a world map and an interactive timeline that help visualize the story of threats and arrests against bloggers worldwide, and it is a central platform to gather information from the most dedicated organisations and activists.

Tunisia's ban on Facebook lifted

  4 September 2008

The ban on the popular social networking website Facebook has been lifted in Tunisia since yesterday 3 September 2008 after a massive protest by Tunisian Netizens. Tens of Facebook groups protesting the ban have popped up in recent weeks surrounding this issue. But, according to Al Chourouk newspaper, the President...

Silencing online speech in Tunisia

Blocking web 2.0 websites (Youtube, Dailymotion, Facebook) and barring access to local outspoken websites and blogs is the most obvious way of cracking down of the online free speech in Tunisia. It should be emphasized, however, that this is only one tool in the regime’s hand. Tunisia has adapted to the web 2.0 revolution by developing a broader strategy composed of a wide range of instruments

Turkey: Dailymotion blocked

Access to the french video-sharing website Dailymotion.com has been blocked in Turkey since August 2nd 2008. According to Erkan Saka, an Istanbul-based blogger, “the decision to ban the site came without any explanation.”

Egypt: Facebooking the Struggle

After little less than a month following the April 6 strike, during which a number of prominent Egyptian bloggers and internet activists were arrested, preparations for the next round of a planned general strike to mark the 80th birthday of President Mubarak, on May 4, 2008, are currently spreading all over the blogosphere and the Internet. Blogger and activist Nora Younis shares some of her ideas with us about the role of Internet in Egypt as a platform for political activism.

Egyptian activists released

Two Egyptian activists, Esraa Abdel Fattah Ahmed, who launched the “6 April” Facebook group and blogger Mohamed Sharkawy, have been released. Both Esraa and Sharkawy were arrested on 5 April while distributing leaflets announcing the 6 April strike.

Indonesia Lifts Ban on YouTube

  14 April 2008

Indonesia has lifted the ban on Youtube.com. Internet service providers “would only block access to pages carrying the film by Geert Wilders” The vice chairman of the Indonesian Internet Providers Association said.

Free Speech Roundup: Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Yemen

  5 April 2008

The Indonesian government has ordered the country’s internet service providers to block YouTube over “Fitna” the movie. In Saudi Arabia, the blog of the detained Saudi blogger Fouad Alfarhan was blocked, along with the Free Fouad website, which is dedicated to Alfarhan's case. In Turkey, a Turkish court banned access to Slide, the maker of social networking widgets, for “harboring pictures and articles that are considered to be insulting to Ataturk.”. And Yemen blocks Maktoob blogging platform cutting off Yemeni Internet users from the more than 46,960 blogs the service hosts.

Yemen blocks Maktoob blogging platform

Maktoobblog.com, one of the most popular Arab blogging platform, has been recently blocked in Yemen cutting off Yemeni Internet users from the more than 46960 blogs the service hosts. According to MaktoobBlog, there are currently 1226 Yemeni blogs hosted by the service. All of them disappeared from the Yemeni Internet.

Tunisia: relentless campaign against imprisoned blogger and journalist Slim Boukhdhir

In the last few weeks, Slim Boukhdhir, the 39-year old imprisoned blogger and journalist, is reported to have been subjected to an unusual level of harassment by prison authorities where he is serving the one-year sentence imposed by a Tunisian court on December 4th, 2007. His wife, Dalenda Boukhdhir, told Global Voices that the prison authorities placed Slim in “dry cell” for three days, from 20-23 March, 2008, turning off the water in his cell so he couldn't wash.

Guide: Bloguer pour une cause !

  22 March 2008

Global Voices Advocacy is pleased to announce the translation into French of its second guide "Blog for a Cause!", thanks to Claire Ulrich from Global Voices en Français. Blog for a Cause! has already been translated into Spanish; the translation into Arabic, Chinese and Bengali is on the way.

Morocco: Fouad Mourtada free

Fouad Mourtada, the 26-year old IT engineer who has been arrested on February 5th, 2008 and sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of $1350 for creating a fake Facebook profile of King Mohammed VI’s younger brother, Prince Moulay Rachid, has been released about an hour ago. According...

EU: Towards a European Global Online Freedom Act

  5 March 2008

The European Parliament has passed a proposal (571 in favor, 38 against) to treat Internet censorship by national governments as a trade barrier. The proposal was submitted by European Parliament member (MEP) Jules Maaten of the Dutch conservative VVD party. The proposal will now pass to the European Council. If adopted as a European Union (EU) law, the proposal could have an impact on future trade negotiations between the EU and governments engaged in Internet censorship.

sami ben gharbia's space

I'm the co-founder of several Tunisian online projects:


Nawaat (The Core)

Ben Ali Yezzi Fock
Ben Ali Yezzi Fock !

Tunisian Prison Map
Tunisian Prison Map


Cybversion