Freedom of Press in Tunisia

The European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought 2011 was assigned to 5 representatives of the Arab people to express recognition and support for their struggle for democracy and human rights. The award will be presented to the winners by the President Jerzy Buzek during a formal sitting in Strasbourg on 14 December. The Sakharov Prize 2011 goes to Asmaa Mahfouz (Egypt), Ahmed al-Zubair Ahmed al-Sanusi (Libya), Razan Zaitouneh (Syria), Ali Farzat (Syria) and, posthumously, Mohamed Bouaziz (Tunisia) (International Press Institute, pp. 3).

After 23 years of dictatorial rule, Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was forced to resign and flee to Saudi Arabia on January 14 due to a massive uprising. The uprising began on December 17 in the provincial town of Sidi Bouzid with a desperate individual, named Mohammaed Bouazizi (Ayish, pp. 108).

Mohammed Bouazizi, a recent graduate who was 26 and made his living as a fruit vendor without permission from the authorities. After being abused and humiliated by police who confiscated his fruit truck, he sprayed himself with gasoline and blew himself up in front of the municipal government offices.

This extreme statement was made due to poverty, lack of opportunity and state brutality was the engine of the protests that swept across the country, despite the application of police firing at protesters and tear gas. From the December 27 2011 (Enns, pp. 45), several protests erupted in the capital, Tunis. The young Bouazizi died of his wounds on January 4; however, his dramatic protest movement took less than a month to overthrow the regime.

The popular movement used the growing discontent against decades of military rule coupled with corruption and poverty. The economic policies imposed by the International Monetary Fund developed an "economic growth" (i.e. increasing profits) by Western investors, combined with the fantastic wealth of the president, his wife and family (Ayish, pp. 108), led to the fall in living standards of the population, high unemployment, and underemployment for most Tunisians. To top it all, the global financial crisis accelerated the fall in living standards.

Discontent was also worsened by Wikileaks published in December last year where classified unoss U.S. Embassy in Tunisia showed that U.S., allied to the regime, was fully aware of the situation that occurred in Tunisia. The leaked cables also showed that despite all the U.S. support for Ben Ali, as an ally in the "war on terrorism” it is ...