January 18, 2011, 11:09 am Tunisian Blogger Joins Government By ROBERT MACKEY
Images of Slim Amamou, a Tunisian blogger, before and after his recent arrest.
Updated | 3:26 p.m. Less than two weeks ago, Slim Amamou, a Tunisian blogger and activist, was using his @slim404 Twitter feed to let friends know that the police had been to his house. Later the same day, after he was arrested, the 33-year-old computer programmer managed to turn his phone on and log on to Google Latitude to broadcast his location: inside the country’s feared ministry of the interior.
On Tuesday, five days after he announced his release from custody on Twitter, and one day after he used the same tool to say that he had accepted an offer to join Tunisia’s new transitional government, Mr. Amamou’s status update on the social network said simply: “in a ministerial meeting.”
The pace of Mr. Amamou’s sudden transformation from dissident prisoner to secretary of state for youth and sports has been matched by the speed of the backlash against his decision to serve in government alongside senior members of the old regime. Soon after his new role was announced, he was fielding congratulations from one of the organizers of Nawaat — an influential Tunisian group blog. Just hours later, another of Nawaat’s editors, Sami Ben Gharbia, posted a plea to Mr. Amamou to reconsider on Twitter, writing:
As a dear friend, I ask you @slim404 don’t accept to collaborate with those who killed Tunisians, stay clean stay citizen.
Another blogger, Seifeddine Ferjani, wrote that he was “not impressed” by Mr. Amamou’s appointment and “not happy about his collaboration with killers.”
Mr. Amamou has, so far, refused to join the opposition members who withdrew from the cabinet on Tuesday and defended his decision to take part in the transitional cabinet, describing it as a necessary compromise to start moving the country forward.
In response to a comment from an Egyptian blogger, Alaa Abd El Fattah — who wrote, “@slim404 I’m worried you are making the wrong choice here my friend” — Mr. Amamou wrote on Twitter:
I don’t think so. It’s a temporary govt to set up elections. I’m here to watch and report and be part of the decisions. Not here to rule.
He also seconded another blogger’s comment, comparing the disapproval of some of Mr. Amamou’s friends who want no collaboration with the party of the deposed president to the reaction of purist fans when an underground music star signs with a major label and is embraced by the masses.
That said, he also noted proudly on Twitter today, as his new government colleagues gathered for their first cabinet meeting, that members of the old regime were upset with him for not wearing a tie.
Fethi Belaid/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Slim Amamou took the oath of office on Tuesday during the swearing in of an interim unity government in Tunis. Angelique Christafis, who is in Tunis for The Guardian, reports that Mr. Amamou told French radio that his recent detention by the regime, “was psychologically very hard, we were deprived of sleep we were handcuffed seated on a chair for five days.” He added: “They make you believe lots of things: that they’re torturing your friends and family. You hear voices, people being tortured in the next room and you think it’s your family. But it wasn’t true.”
Ms. Christafis also reports:
Amamou had also been arrested over an earlier censorship protest last May. He was offered a place in the interim government only minutes before the government’s make-up was announced yesterday. He took the decision to accept in a matter of minutes. He said it was an “excellent opportunity” and his “duty” to take part in rebuilding the country. He said he would be advising the older members on the government on internet, communications and social networking. For him, Tunisia’s biggest problems were freedom of information and a justice system which was totally controlled by the regime.
Mr. Amamou writes and speaks mainly in French and Arabic. Readers conversant in those languages who want to know more about him can listen to this interview he gave to French television after his appointment on Monday, watch these videos about his efforts to organize a demonstration against censorship in Tunisia last year, and this talk on the subject of Internet freedoms Mr. Amamou delivered on the opening day of TEDx Carthage, a Web Technology, Entertainment and Design in Tunis last September that he helped to organize.
Slim Amamou spoke at the independently organized TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference in Tunis in September. In a Facebook discussion of that TEDx presentation — which touched on the role of anonymity, the Internet forum 4Chan and the Web activists who call themselves Anonymous — Mr. Amamou wrote this, in English, about his perspective on censorship and the Internet:
I’m advocating for multiple identities + Anonymous. So you’re not always Anon and *you* have the choice, not government.
When someone kills your daughter he’s always anonymous. I can’t think of any situation where he would leave his ID car…d so that you recognize him. It’s police investigation that removes anonymity from him. When you commit a crime you surrender your rights as always. Your right to be free and your right to be Anon.
But you’re maybe advocating “preventive” surveillance systems like cameras in the streets? I’m not against them. I just want to be free to wear a mask and to have full access to what camera is filming in real time. Otherwise it would imbalance power in favor of government and at the expense of people. The reasoning behind this is : “you put your camera on the street corner? so it’s a public space, right? I could’ve been there to watch what’s happening live. Ok, then just extend my vision by putting live videos on the internet” This way it’s a real public place.
I don’t mind police watching me as long as Anonymous is watching the police.
Slim Amamou took the oath of office on Tuesday during the swearing in of an interim unity government in Tunis.
Slim Amamou spoke at the independently organized TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference in Tunis in September.
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