MEDIA :
Tunisian Journalist Fights for Openness
Stephen Leahy
Stephen Leahy
BROOKLIN, Canada, Nov 19 (IPS) - The Tunisian recipient of a Canadian award recognising her fight for media freedom in her homeland says she will organise a counter conference to a planned United Nations meeting on the "information society" in Tunis in 2005.
Sihem Bensedrine was one of three winners of the 2004 International Press Freedom Award to be honoured by the group Canadian Journalists for Freedom of Expression in Toronto this week. The annual prize recognises courageous journalists who face personal risks in pursuit of the news.
Also saluted were Guy-André Kieffer, a Canadian freelance journalist who disappeared in Côte d'Ivoire in April, and Zimbabwean newspaper 'The Daily News', forced to close down in February 2004 for its "uncompromising opposition to government repression."
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Tunisia has one of the most oppressive censorship regimes in the world, according to the International Press Institute (IPI), a global network of journalists and editors based in Vienna. For that reason the IPI and other press freedom organisations want the WSIS to abandon Tunisia as the site of its 2005 gathering.
Recent events could support that argument.
Recent events could support that argument.
Any and all mention of Tunisia's ability and suitability as a place to discuss freedom of expression were shouted down at a major WSIS preparatory meeting involving civil society groups in Hamment, Tunisia in June, said Mark Bench of the World Press Freedom Committee, a U.S.-based coalition of 45 countries.
Full Story at:
http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=26354
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