Tunisia: catch all

[AdamG]

President Ben Ali gave a hastily scheduled televised address on Thursday night, his second in the past week, and this time he appeared rattled. He no longer blamed foreign terrorists or vowed to crack down on protesters. Instead, he pledged to give in to many of the protesters’ demands, including an end to the government’s notoriously tight censorship, but rejecting calls for an immediate end to his 23-year rule.

“I am telling you I understand you, yes, I understand you,” Mr. Ben Ali, 74, declared. “And I decided: total freedom for the media with all its channels and no shutting down Internet sites and rejecting any form of monitoring of it.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/14/wo...a.html?_r=2&hp

From two days ago

Jobless youths in Tunisia riot using Facebook

And what has helped to break the barrier of fear that kept Tunisian anger bottled up for so long? Social networks like Facebook, which have helped organize protests and fuel online rage across this North African nation.

Police have fired repeatedly on protesters. The government says 23 people have died in the riots — 21 in the last three days — but unions and witnesses say at least 46 have died. In the town of Kasserine, site of the bloodiest confrontation, police were reported to have killed a man carrying the coffin of a child.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110111/...unisia_riots_4

[AdamG]

Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has left the country, amid the worst unrest there in decades. The Arabic language network al-Jazeera says the speaker of parliament is temporarily in charge.

The president was reported to have boarded a flight out of the country Friday evening local time. The military had sealed off the airport and closed Tunisian airspace a short time beforehand.

A state of emergency was also declared earlier Friday, with public gatherings banned and security forces authorized to shoot violators.

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/...113607609.html

[AdamG]

Did Wikileaks and Twitter Cause Tunisia's Revolution?
http://gawker.com/5733816/did-wikile...ias-revolution

The First WikiLeaks Revolution?
http://wikileaks.foreignpolicy.com/p...nisia_protests

ANONYMOUS on Tunisia, beginning of January
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFLaBRk9wY0

[davidbfpo]

After the rapid change of government I have amended the thread title and moved it to a different area i.e. geographical. The title was: ANONYMOUS vs. the Tunisian Government in the Media arena.

[davidbfpo]

Two very different articles - before - the change of governance. The first opens with:

In the end one never knows why it is that social conditions erupt into revolt. More often than not they do not. But still, there are a number of factors which might explain the current unprecedented protests.

Link:http://www.opendemocracy.net/rob-pri...%80%99s-enough

The second is rather more polemical, if not outrageous and starts:

Abolkacim Ashabi once wrote, "If the people one day decide to live, fate must answer and the chains must break." Bouazizi’s martyrdom may have triggered a popular revival, many now believe, which will ensure that it is only a matter of time before Ashabi’s prophecy is fulfilled.

Link:http://www.opendemocracy.net/dyab-ab...ple-and-beyond

[davidbfpo]

The BBC, which has a reporter there, has reasonable coverage:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12195025

Note the reporter's comment on the prospects:

The protesters have put their bodies on the line, and many people have been killed. Tonight, they ignored the curfew to celebrate on the streets. At the end of a dramatic day, President Ben Ali fled, no longer able to hold back the growing tide of public discontent and anger with his regime. Now, the protesters will want to see the fruits of their demonstrations. They won't settle for meagre reform, they won't settle for the same elite remaining in power. They're very happy that the president has gone, but they don't like the regime that surrounded him, and they'll want his cronies out as well.

What I noticed watching the latest newsreel is that those on the streets were not the youth.

[davidbfpo]

An academic expert adds:

Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali came to power in 1987 through a constitutional coup and he appears to have been removed from power through a constitutional coup. The key here on both occasions was not the constitution but the army.

Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12197343