Tunisian dissident wins 1st ‘Cyber-Freedom Prize’

Tunisian cyber-dissident Zouhair Yahyaoui has been awarded the first “Cyber-Freedom Prize” from Reporters Without Borders. Yahyaoui launched a news Web site from within Tunisia in July 2001. TUNeZINE conveyed 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. That and other posts upset the authorities and he was arrested in an Internet caf? in June 2002. After a summary trial, an appeal court sentenced him in July 2002 to two years in prison for “spreading false news.”