Tunisian ‘Pirate Party’ gets legal approval

By Monia Ghanmi
Magharebia

The Tunisian interior ministry just legalised Africa’s first anti-censorship political party. The Tunisian Pirate Party, approved on March 13th [2012], is a branch of the worldwide cyber-activist movement.

“We established our party to gather together all those thirsty for knowledge hampered by barriers put in place by the political authority in the country, and our goal is to bring our people up to the level of developed countries,”

spokesman Mohamed Boukoum said in a press statement.

The party consists mainly of bloggers, many of whom were active during the Tunisian revolution and were imprisoned under the former regime. Their goal is to protect the right of more than two million Tunisian internet users to access information without restrictions, according to the party statute.

“The political work of the Pirate Party aspires to provide knowledge for each Tunisian citizen and does not accept trusteeship imposed upon them by dictators, who are still devouring our right to communicate with the developed world and tossing us into the bottom of the sea of backwardness and ignorance. We will thus confront all attempts at censorship and control,” Boukoum said.

The party, however, does not aim to carry out sabotage or piracy, according to the spokesman, but to attract hackers and train them within a framework of freedom, justice and equality.

One of the party founders and most prominent members, Slim Amamou, confirmed that the group did not intend to perpetrate piracy attacks on websites.

“The ideology of this party is freedom and use of the internet as infrastructure and democracy, because free Internet is an indicator of democratic nations,” he said.

Amamou, who was named Secretary of State for Youth and Sports in the transitional government of Mohamed Ghannouchi, predicted success for the party during the next election because many young people were interested in the field.

After the overthrow of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia lifted curbs on websites, including pornographic sites. But Reporters Without Borders concluded in its latest report that Tunisia was still subject to internet censorship.

The press freedom watchdog released the study March 12th on the occasion of the World Day Against Cyber Censorship. According to the organisation, restrictions on individual internet users persist.

In this context, Tunisian bloggers plan to continue on the same path of struggle to defend their hard-won freedoms and abolish all forms of censorship that still exist.

Blogger “Boukornine” called on cyber-activists to unify and uphold their role as “the only guarantors of internet freedom”. He urged Tunisian bloggers to stay authentic and continue to defend the real objectives of the revolution, which was carried out for freedom of expression.

Jailed Pirate Party member becomes Tunisian government minister

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Ars Technica

From imprisoned Pirate Party member to government leader, it’s been an eventful week for Tunisian blogger and software developer Slim Amamou. Arrested by security forces a week ago, Amamou emerged from jail a few days later only to watch as president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled the country and the new “unity” government asked Amamou to join.

Amamou is a well-known digital activist in Tunisia; his Twitter account outlines in brief his positions:

“Against censorship, against IPR, for net neutrality.”

He’s a member of the Pirate Party of Tunisia and head of a small software company called Alixsys that develops Web apps for pharmaceutical companies and online startups.

He was arrested a week ago, as Tunisian demonstrations against the Ben Ali regime reached a peak; security forces apparently wanted to know about any involvement Amamou had with a series of denial of service attacks on Tunisian government websites.

On January 13, 2011 Amamou was released. He commemorated the moment with the briefest of tweets:

“Je suis libre.”

In response to a question, he said that he

“was not physically tortured (or very little). Only psychologically.”

Ben Ali and his family fled the country last week as his minor political concessions failed to appease demonstrators. A new unity government, one that includes many key ministers from the old regime, was formed on Monday and meant to include a broad range of political parties (which could now exist legally). Amamou was asked to serve as state secretary for youth and sports, a newly created position that he has accepted.

Will the current unity government hold? Several junior ministers have already walked out after it became clear that key jobs, including interior and defense, won’t be changing hands. For its part, the new government has pledged to hold a full slate of elections within the next few months, saying that current ministers were still needed to maintain stability during the transition period.

Sources: Magharebia | Ars Technica, January 2011 | Haiti Chery