Tunisia Document: President Ben Ali's Speech "Hostile Elements in the Pay of Foreigners"

These incidents are the work of a small group of hostile elements who are offended by the success of Tunisia and who are are filled with resentment and grievance, because of the progress and development achieved by the country, as evidenced by the reports of institutions and international and UN organisations known for their objectivity and impartiality.

These ill-intentioned elements have used the issue of unemployment, exploiting an isolated act of desperation, as happens in all societies and in many situations.

Hostile elements in the pay of foreigners, who have sold their souls to extremism and terrorism, manipulated from outside the country by parties who do not wish well to a country determined to persevere and work.

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Tunisia Latest: Government Says "Message Received" From Protests

2005 GMT: Footage has just been posted which claims to be of a protest tonight in Bizerte.

2000 GMT: Indeed, as we read the reassurances of the Minister of Interior, we see a video of demonstrators burning a poster of President Ben Ali.

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Tunisia Analysis: Mis-Reporting the Story (Whitaker)

The Tunisian uprising is beginning to get more coverage in the English-language media, so this may be a suitable moment to look at the sort of coverage it is getting. 

Considering the horrific violence meted out by the police over the weekend, the Ben Ali regime is being given an extraordinarily easy ride.

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Tunisia Latest: At Least 9 Dead in Saturday Clashes

1945 GMT: Radio Kalima is claiming more than 50 people died on Saturday night and Sunday morning: 16 in Thala, 22 in the Kasserine region, 2 in Meknassi, 1 in Feriana, and 8 in Reguab.

The site claims special forces and militia used live ammunition and also fired on funeral processions and burial ceremonies.

1525 GMT: A two-minute video of the dead and wounded, lying in hospital, from the Thala clash is racing across the Internet. (Warning: graphic images)

Reuters says Tunisian authorities are now admitting eight were killed in Tala and the Kasserine region last night.

The Regional Federation of Labor, Kasserine, has published the names of 19 victims.

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Tunisia Video: The Music That Got Rapper "El General" Arrested

On Thursday, amidst protests in Tunisia, rapper El General (Hamada Ben-Amor) was detained. His brother Hamdi Ben-Amor explained, ""Some 30 plainclothes policemen came to our house to arrest Hamada and took him away without ever telling us where to. When we asked why they were arresting him, they said 'he knows why'."

"Why" is making music critical of the Tunisian Government with lines such as "President, Your People Are Dying":

Tunisia Latest: World Starts to Notice as Protests and Detentions Continue

Protest on Friday at a High School

UPDATE 8 December, 1100 GMT: Activists claim blogger and university theatre professor Fatma Riahi was arrested today.

Riahi, who blogged as Arabicca, was also arrested in Novmeber 2009.

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Over the last 48 hours, as protests (see video) over economic conditions and political repression continue in Tunisia, international attention to detentions and censorship has emerged.

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Tunisia Media Special: Journalists to President "End Censorship on Coverage of Unrest"

The Committee to Protect Journalists is disturbed by your government's attempt to censor coverage of recent protests against unemployment and corruption in Tunisia. We are specifically alarmed by the confiscation of two opposition weeklies, the government's denunciation of Al-Jazeera, the systematic obstruction of reporting and broadcasting, as well as the blocking of news websites that are covering the protests. We call on your government to bring to an immediate end its efforts to curtail independent reporting and to reverse course on the restrictions in place since mid-December.

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Tunisia Cyber-Special: "Anonymous" Takes Down the Government

In an operation which has received surprisingly little attention, Anonymous --- the collective which defended WikiLeaks last month by attacking sites of institutions such as Visa, MasterCard, and the bank Swiss Post Finance --- has taken down the on-line presence of the Government of Tunisia.

On Monday, in a general protest supporting Tunisian demonstrations over the economy and in a specific response to the Government's censorship and surveillance of websites and social media (see separate entry), Anonymous attacked six sites of the Government, including those of the Prime Minister and its Ministries, and the site of a private bank.

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Tunisia Cyber-Special: Authorities "Invade" Facebook to Monitor Activists (O'Brien)

Based on reports of users in the country, Tunisian authorities appear to be modifying web pages on the fly to steal usernames and passwords for sites such as Facebook, Google and Yahoo. Unknown parties have subsequently logged onto these sites using these stolen credentials, and used them to delete Facebook groups, pages, and accounts.

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WikiLeaks and Tunisia 2008: "President Ben Ali's Extended Family --- The Nexus of Tunisian Corruption"

In the context of the current economic protests in Tunisia, this document from WikiLeaks takes on new significance.

In June 2008, the US Embassy in Tunis takes a full and frank look at corruption in Tunisia. It "is getting worse" and it starts at the top: "President [Zine El Abidine] Ben Ali's extended family is often cited as the nexus of Tunisian corruption....Seemingly half of the Tunisian business community can claim a Ben Ali connection through marriage, and many of these relations are reported to have made the most of their lineage."

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