From: Mustafa Akgul (akgul@Bilkent.EDU.TR)
Date: Mon 23 Jun 2003 - 19:20:10 EEST
From: "Joseph M. Hochstein" <hochjm@netvision.net.il>
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2003 15:59:05 +0200
Subject: [MewBkd] Tunisian cyber-dissident Zouhair Yahyaoui,
winner of the first Cyber-Freedom Prize awarded by Reporters s@ns fronti?res
19 June 2003
Reporters without Borders
Tunisian cyber-dissident Zouhair Yahyaoui, winner of the first
Cyber-Freedom Prize
awarded by Reporters s@ns fronti?res - Globenet for 2003
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=7278?
At least 51 cyber-dissidents are in prison around the world. So
Reporters Without Borders is honouring a cyber-dissident who is
being prevented from informing us via the Internet. The first
prizewinner is Tunisian cyber-dissident Zouhair Yahyaoui,
sentenced to two years in prison. Yahyaoui's fianc?e, Sophie
Piekarec, received the Prize on his behalf at a ceremony in
Paris.
Yahyaoui's fianc?e, Sophie Piekarec, received the 7,600 euro
Prize on his behalf at a ceremony in Paris today. The Prize goes
to an Internet user who, through their professional activity or
principled positions, demonstrates their support for the free
flow of information online.
In Borj el Amri prison on the outskirts of Tunis, 4 June 2003 was
the first anniversary of the arrest of Zouhair Yahyaoui, 35,
cyber-dissident and creator of the website TUNeZINE.
It was also the day his French fianc?e, Sophie Piekarec, had
wanted to spend in Tunis with Yahyaoui's family. She flew over
specially from Paris, but was turned back when she landed at
Tunis airport.
What crime did Yahyaoui commit to deserve this ? A young
unemployed university graduate and Internet enthusiast, Yahyaoui
launched a news website from within Tunisia in July 2001. It was
the only way to express oneself in this country of censorship.
Using the pseudonym Ettounsi, Yahyaoui quickly began drawing lots
of young visitors to TUNeZINE. His recipe was humour and sarcasm.
In July 2001, TUNeZINE began reflecting the concerns of human
rights defenders by being the first site to post an open letter
to President Ben Ali from Judge Mokhtar Yahyaoui (Zouhair
Yahyaoui's uncle) criticising the complete lack of judicial
independence in Tunisia.
Written mostly in the Tunisian vernacular, the posts of Yahyaoui
and his team upset the authorities. Tunisia's cyber-police, who
are among the most effective in the world, were ordered to track
them down.
He was arrested in an Internet caf? in a Tunis suburb on 4 June
2002 by ten plain-clothes policemen, who took him to his home and
searched his room, taking his computer equipment. During
interrogation by members of the Directorate for State Security
(DES), an offshoot of the interior ministry, he revealed the
password to his website. He was also tortured. After a summary
trial, an appeal court sentenced him on 10 July 2002 to two years
in prison for "spreading false news."
Yahyaoui has continued his fight from his prison cell. The only
way now for him to combat the injustice of which he is a victim
is hunger strikes. He has staged three of them since the
beginning of 2003. They have left him weak, but he has not given
up.
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