Internet and the Public Sphere: Tunisian Cyberactivism

Martin Erpicum (martin-at-erpicum.net) ; Sophie Grenade (Sophie.Grenade-at-ulg.ac.be) ; Romain Lecomte (Romain.Lecomte-at-ulg.ac.be).

The impressive popularization of Internet, these last ten years, gave birth to new forms of democratic hopes. Without sinking in a dithyrambic speech making of Internet the new El Dorado of the democracy, we can reasonably consider that these new ICT contribute to the emergence of a new public space as a discursive and critical space subjected to an ideal of Publicity (Habermas, 1962). For Habermas, as for the majority of the democracy theorists, a « functioning public sphere » proves to be an essential condition to acceptable democracy, because it allows the development of a public opinion by freedom of movement of information and the confrontation of ideas between citizens. Compared to the traditional « mass media », the Internet offers new possibilities. First of all, the latest developed technologies make possible a greater interactivity by the passage of a type of communication based on a one-to-many’s relationship to a many-to-many’s one. It also allows the citizens the diffusion of alternative information, more transparent, and subjectless to a commercial or governmental logic. Even the way of disseminating and receiving the information is new (as the use hyperlinks shows it). Moreover, Internet also makes it possible to spread the information largely over the official borders.

In the Western countries, the impact of these new media is often apprehended like a response to the crisis of the contemporary democratic representation. But, we wish here to relate the cases of other national contexts, countries where the democracy is still proscribed. In countries like Iran, Tunisia, China or Egypt, for instance, the effect of Internet could induce a more important political change. One indeed sees developing websites and online-forums criticizing the state government and which define themselves as new militant movements, the cyberdissidents. In this sort of political regime, Internet offers the possibility of partially escaping from the censure and repression of the authoritarian government. Within the framework of this fight for the democracy, anonymity constitutes an extremely valuable weapon, just like the development of a transnational public space, making possible the diaspora to take part and play a crucial role, but also an increased awareness of the international opinion - which could constitute a means to change.

In this article, we will be interested in the case of Tunisia which, in spite of an ostentatious rhetoric of the democracy, presents all the features of an authoritarian government. Indeed, the monitoring and the repression of any autonomous political expression do not allow citizens and media to express themselves freely in the daily activities. This political censure is not only direct repressive action of the government. Indeed, beyond this repression, it is important to notice that a form of interiorization of the censure is self-activated.

In spite of these complex mechanisms, political criticism exists in Tunisia. One traditionally distinguishes two types of opposition. First, the « Legal opposition » [ [1] Between quotation marks because it is not considered as a real opposition.

[2] Most known are : reveiltunisien.org ; nawaat.org ; tunisnews.net.

[3] http://www.kitab.nl/tunisianprisonersmap/ : This mashup work made echo to the United States. See also : http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2006/09/27/tunisia-opening-prisons-to-the-world

[4] Reporters Without Borders - place thus Tunisia in the list of the 13 enemies of Internet: http://www.rsf.org/int_blackholes_en.php3?id_mot=103&annee=2005. A text of Human Rights Watch particularly interesting concerning the censure of the Tunisian Net: http://hrw.org/reports/2005/mena1105/7.htm#_Toc119125752