Human rights concerns may scuttle WSIS Tunisia meeting

[Chris Chiu]

A coalition of free press groups are calling for the next phase of the World Summit on the Information Society to be held somewhere other than Tunisia, the currently selected host. In a statement, these organizations cited Tunisia's "serious human rights abuses. The Tunisian press is censored, journalists are jailed along with hundreds of other political prisoners, and organization of the Tunis summit has been assigned to a military general alleged to be responsible for the torture of political prisoners." Thus, according to the coalition, holding the WSIS second phase in the North African country would "completely undermine WSIS declaration's reaffirmation on the principles of free information and free expression."

See
http://www.internetdemocracyproject.org/#highlights

Sincerely,
Christopher Chiu
Technology Policy Analyst
American Civil Liberties Union