Last week in Tunis thousands of activists, academics, development workers, and, of course, politicians gathered to discuss the future of information and communications technologies (ICTs) and human development. The World Summit on the Information Society 2nd phase meeting, a UN-sponsored event, was organized as a forum for public discussion of such issues as the digital divide, and internet governance. All of this, of course, under the banner of the UN's human rights agenda--everyone has the right to communicate, etc.

Funny thing that this event would take place in Tunis.

Human Rights Watch released a report to coincide with the event:

The 144-page report, “False Freedom: Online Censorship in the Middle East and North Africa,” documents online censorship and cases in which Internet users have been detained for their online activities in countries across the region, including Tunisia, Iran, Syria and Egypt. These attempts to control the flow of information online contradict governments’ national and international legal commitments to freedom of opinion and expression and the summit’s own Declaration of Principles.

Repression and overt censorship by way of police force prevented many human rights activists from speaking out at this year’s event.

http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/11/15/mena12011.htm