BEYWATCH: TUNISIAN BLOGGERS CENSORED BY STATE AND

C O N F I D E N T I A L TUNIS 000130 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR NEA/MAG - HARRIS, HOPKINS; DRL - JOHNSTONE, KLARMAN; NEA/PPD - DOUGLAS, CURRY, AGNEW; IIP/G/NEA; EEB/CIP - GIBBS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/24/2018 TAGS: KPAO SOCI TS SUBJECT: BEYWATCH: TUNISIAN BLOGGERS CENSORED BY STATE AND SELF REF: TUNIS 1555 Classified By: Ambassador Robert F. Godec for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) -------------- SUMMARY AND INTRODUCTION -------------- ¶1. (U) While blogging may have lost its novelty (though not its popularity)in the United States and much of the rest of the world, it is still a nascent phenomenon in Tunisia. Only in the past year or so has the Tunisian "blogosphere" begun to take shape, and its creators and contributors seem to be trying to find their footing. While Tunisians writing from abroad may touch on everything from politics to poetry, domestic censorship - of both the government and self-imposed varieties - makes it unlikely bloggers in Tunisia will play a significant role in influencing public discourse or opinion for some time to come. END SUMMARY AND INTRODUCTION. ¶2. (U) NOTE: This report is one of a series drafted by Post's entry level officers which have the "Beywatch" title. We believe the perspectives offered in the following vignette will give the reader greater insight into Tunisia. It is not a comprehensive overview of the subject. END NOTE. -------------- TYPE NO EVIL -------------- ¶3. (SBU) At first glance, the most written-about issues on US blogs do not appear strikingly different from the topics covered by Tunisian writers: People post their thoughts and opinions on everything from food to love to travel to technology. After some reading, however, gaping holes appear in the Tunisian "blogosphere": Politics and religion, two of the most popular topics for bloggers worldwide, do not appear on almost any page written in Tunisia. If they do, they are referred to vaguely and obliquely. Where does this censorship come from? Is it based on fear of a government known for reciprocating criticism with punishment? Or have Tunisians grown so accustomed to watching what they say in a nation with little freedom of expression that they have developed a defensive apathy? ¶4. (SBU) The internet in Tunisia is controlled by the Tunisian Internet Agency (ATI),which falls under the umbrella of the Ministry of Communications. All twelve of Tunisia's internet service providers go through ATI for their bandwidth, and the agency also regulates domain name systems. While internet use in the country has been growing (over eight percent in the last five years according to Reporters Without Borders),some sites are still blocked by the GOT (septel). In order to keep their blogs available to the Tunisian population, writers must ensure that they do not post anything "likely to upset public order," as outlined by the national Press Code. Using SmartFilter, software produced and sold by the American company Secure Computing, the GOT identifies websites it wishes to block from the public, and creates a faux error page simulating a connection problem (rather than a filtering one) when a Tunisian user attempts to visit the site. (NOTE: A Secure Computing representative told Conoff that government customers can tailor the filtering "to meet their cultural needs." END NOTE.) -------------- RESTRICTION AND REPRISAL -------------- ¶5. (U) According to Reporters Without Borders, the server that lists all Tunisian blog addresses (http://tn-blogs.com) will not publicize those seen as critical to the government. While the number of Tunisians blogging has increased recently, this has not seemed to hamper GOT control of their content. The Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH) has said that widespread public awareness that the government is monitoring and filtering internet usage has slowed its growth. So while the number of Tunisian bloggers may have risen dramatically in the past year, the number of readers is more difficult to discern. With an internet penetration rate averaging only 12 percent, it does not appear that large numbers are following online entries. Nor do Tunisian bloggers draw international attention the way their counterparts in places like Egypt and Iraq do. Even "Subzero Blue," one of the relatively well-known blogs in Tunisia (http://www.subzeroblue.com) only boasts a community of 42 regular readers, and only 130 some people receive its newsfeed. ¶6. (U) The cost of crossing the Government's unwritten red lines can be much dearer than having one's site shut down. On March 13, 2005 blogger Zouhair Yahyaoui died of a heart attack in prison, where he had been sent for "spreading false news" via his blog. Last month blogger and human rights activist Slim Boukhdhir was arrested in Sfax (see reftel),as was Naziha Rajiba ("Um Ziad") in 2003 when she posted an open letter to the Ministry of Education that criticized the Tunisian educational system. (She was accused of "violating regulations of information exchange".) -------------- BLOCKED SITES AND BITTEN TONGUES -------------- ¶7. (U) In an attempt to get Tunisian bloggers' perspectives for this cable, Conoff e-mailed 14 bloggers, asking them a series of questions about why they blog, their impressions of Tunisian blogging in general, and whether they feel it is better for bloggers to write only on politically neutral topics, thereby evading censorship and ensuring availability to the Tunisian public, or whether freedom of expression demands writing on any topic that so moves them, even if it limits their readership to those who live outside of Tunisia or who have the savoir-faire to connect to the blogs surreptitiously. Only three bloggers responded. All demanded to know why they were being asked, and if GOT permission had been given for any research being done. The two who responded to the questions claimed that they were not worried about their sites being blocked to Tunisian audiences, but rather that they simply were not interested in politics and so did not touch on those subjects (though both had postings on political issues other countries). One commented that Tunisian bloggers are different from their counterparts elsewhere because they are "a very closed community, and are rarely mingling with the outside world." Both agreed that Tunisian blogging really took off in popularity about one year ago, and both made mention of blogs as an alternative to what one described as the "pathetic" Tunisian press. ¶8. (U) Despite the risks, some bloggers still address taboo or sensitive topics. Either they remain anonymous and try to evade being blocked by continually changing their sites or service providers or, more commonly, they only allude to political issues in elliptical or ambiguous ways. Take "Nadia," a female Tunisian blogger (http://www.mideastyouth.com) who generally stays away from hot button political issues. She wrote a long and emotional entry about her fellow bloggers critiquing her work. Her words ("At this point you have a choice to make: continue to be free and accept the consequences, or just forget about the entire enriching communication thing... Should you just share your favorite music and forget about the rest, or try again...to protect your right to have opinions?") could just as easily be referring to the quandary faced by anyone wishing to question the GOT in a public forum. In this same way, one often finds Tunisian bloggers posting furiously about journalists arrested or jailed in neighboring countries without ever mentioning the lack of freedom of expression at home. It may be that this is a way for the writers to vent their own frustrations without risking censure. ¶9. (C) Moez Souabni, of the ostensibly non-governmental organization, Tunisian Association for Internet and Multimedia (ATIM) told Conoff that he has advised the GOT many times to stop blocking politically controversial internet sites, as he believes that their suppression only makes them more popular. He claims that during the 2005 United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS),when the GOT temporarily stopped censoring the internet, the number of Tunisian visitors to the normally blocked sites did not increase at all. "Because those people that are interested in reading negative things about the government, about Tunisia, are already doing so through proxy servers and backdoor methods," Souabni explained to Conoff. ¶10. (C) Souabni also bemoaned what he sees as a lack of centrism in the Tunisian blogosphere. "You have people who hate (Tunisian President) Ben Ali, who hate everything about Tunisia, who say that the press is terrible, there are no civil rights...And they are writing from France and Holland and Europe and are blocked here...And then you have the Tunisians writing from here, in the country, who say everything is perfect, nothing is wrong...it's all sports and making love and everything is great..." Souabni believes it will take more than just the abandonment of SmartFilter to increase Tunisian expression on the internet. "We have been brought up to watch what we say, who we say it to, where we say it," he said, sighing wearily. "Now it's part of the Tunisian identity... To self-censor is part of who we are... (the government) doesn't need to block people, Tunisians block themselves." ¶11. (SBU) According to one Tunisian who works in the IT field and is well-versed in Tunisian blogging, those who do make a name for themselves in the national blogosphere are those who are most adept at skirting around the edges of controversial issues. It may be a true Tunisian art form: The ability to talk around a taboo subject in such a way as to spark a discussion on a seemingly unrelated topic. The Tunisian pointed to Big Boy Trap (http://trapboy.blogspot.com),who is popular blogger writing in Tunisian dialectical Arabic. Big Boy apparently has a knack for using subjects like movie reviews and poetry to inspire debate on his site. According to the source, while the arguments of the commentators responding to Big Boy's articles may seem as though they center on something such as the use of Koranic Arabic in satire, their true meanings can encompass everything from freedom of expression to the joys and pitfalls of secularism. But, he also admitted that it is doubtful the average Tunisian reader would delve into such subtlety and double-speak. Blogging in Tunisia is something created by and for "the intelligentsia" he said, and unlikely to become a revolutionary force among the populace. -------------- OVERSEAS AND OUTRAGED -------------- ¶12. (U) Tunisian expatriate bloggers are apparently the opposite of their compatriots back home: They seem to overwhelmingly use their internet space for the denunciation of GOT policies which undermine freedom of expression. One of the most common graphics on Tunisian expat blogs is a shield bearing a blue ribbon, the Tunisian flag, and the motto: "Liberte D'Expression!" Tunisian bloggers, most living in Europe, post news articles about censored Tunisian reporters, Tunisian journalists beaten and Tunisian political oppositionists jailed. Even those authors whose blogs are purportedly not specifically about politics seem to focus overwhelmingly on transgressions against civil liberties in their native country. Of all the French or English blogs that Conoff could find through a Google search written by Tunisians abroad, the majority were blocked in Tunisia and therefore inaccessible to the general Tunisian public. (See septel.) -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶12. (SBU) Oussama Romdhani, the Director General of the Tunisian External Communication Agency (ATCE),claims that "blocked websites are mostly anonymous websites used as a venue to smear the reputation of private individuals, and often include threatening terrorist organizations." While both the Tunisian internet public and independent observers know this does not reflect reality, as long as the GOT continues to deny access to information and punish those who would question its authority or competence online, the divide between those blogging in Tunisia and those outside the high walls of censorship, will continue to exist. It is doubtful that Tunisian blogging will become a real force in the country if almost all content is about childrearing, soccer, restaurants and new technological advancements that a good portion of the population cannot afford. Until more Tunisians are willing to take risks to express themselves or the GOT eases its strictures about what its population can say, Tunisians writing from home will remain an afterthought in the online world. END COMMENT. GODEC