Fergie's Tech Blog

Tunisian Internet Controls Blasted at WSIS Opening

From Tunis, Kieren McCarty writes in The Register:

An extraordinary criticism of Tunisia’s approach to the Internet was fired at its president Zine Ben Ali at the opening ceremony of the World Summit in Tunis this morning.

Swiss president Samuel Schmid drew huge applause from the back of the room when he directly criticised Tunisia’s controlling Internet policies. "It is unsupportable that the UN still has members that imprison their own citizens because of what they have written on the Internet or in the press," he said. "Everyone should be able to express their views freely."

Ben Ali shifted uncomfortably in his chair and refused to look at Schmid when he sat down next to him after finishing his speech. However, Schmid’s speech was followed up by even more direct criticism from Shirin Abadi from the International Federation for Human Rights.

"Certain governments that are not genuinely elected by their people do not reflect the people’s desire on Internet matters," she said. "It is important to make sure that non-governmental organisations are not manipulated by creating so-called NGOs that transmit false information on the situation prevailing in their country."

posted by Fergie @ 11/16/2005 09:11:00 AM