Interviews with Zied Mhirsi

Tunisia is an extremely isolated country. Isolated because nobody´s interested in Tunisia until the revolution. We grew up in a country where a very few people would write about you and interested in you. We´re extremely homogeneous group of people that is basically living on its own– watching TV and– and the most powerful TVs are able to influence this country and to a large extent. We´ve seen the power of Al Jazeera who managed to gain most of the viewers in Tunisia.

So when I came back to Tunisia, then this issue of isolation, not only physical isolation but civilizational isolation. People believe in TV the way they see it, and they´re starting only now creating some sort of self-criticism and awareness of how things should happen and they realize that their media has been a propaganda media for, like 50 years. And now they have to build something different and new.

Realizing all these challenges, and really wanting to influence the future of Tunisia. So with a couple of friends, we created the first Tunisian news website in English. And we hope that this news website will contribute first in training Tunisians to communicate with the world, training Tunisian journalists to communicate with the world. And to learn the skills they need to learn in order to have an independent media.

This website will also allow people overseas to read Tunisian news and know more about our stories, you know? [Tarek al-Tayeb Mohamed] Bouazizi the food vendor set himself on fire and sparked this revolution. That´s a local story in Tunisia. It became global. We believe that there are many other local stories that could become global, and that might interest the world and everyone who´s allowed who wants to know more about Tunisia will have the possibility to read and learn more about us through this website.

So it´s a platform that shows Tunisian news in terms of articles, but also we put videos there and broadcasts. And that´s something that is groundbreaking here in Tunisia. And we´re happy to be the ones doing it right now. A lot of the international networks came to us and asked for help, so now we became also a platform that help the news production of the big networks in Tunisia. Living in the United States, we saw how the web played a big role in the campaign. In Tunisia, the web is still not thinking about politics, I would say.

So with Tunisialive.net, we thought that we could do something similar to what happens in the U.S. So we contacted Google, and built a partnership with them, so now we have a partnership with Google Corporation to have a special YouTube channel for the elections. And we basically invited Tunisians to ask their questions online on YouTube and vote for the most popular questions. And the questions were definitely about economic opportunities, about unemployment, about religion and identity. And we invited the representatives of the most famous parties in Tunisia and asked them to respond to these questions in our little homemade studio.

We built a studio out of nothing. And we managed to have our videos viewed by more than 50,000 people. And that´s a great contribution for us doing that without any single funding or grant or support from anybody else. And not having even ads on it to be able to influence the choice of 50,000 people in this point in this campaign was something that we were really proud of.

In 2004, Dr. Zied Mhirsi became a pioneer in Tunisia’s pre-revolutionary blogosphere, and used his blog, Zizou From Djerba, as a platform to express ideas, opinions, and experiences. He soon engaged others in the blogosphere on policy debates about topics like education, agriculture, and the environment. Initially, the Internet was one of the few venues for Tunisians to express themselves without being harassed by government authorities. As the regime of Zine el Abidine Ben Ali became more aware of the blogosphere’s ability to influence society, bloggers like Mhrisi became targets of censorship and persecution.

As a student studying in the United States, Mhirsi became involved in Tunisian radio and through his broadcasts, informed Tunisians about world events. When he returned to his homeland, Mhirsi remained active in radio and used it to promote the use of social media. This concept transformed into a weekly political show that featured voices from the Tunisian blogosphere prior to the 2010 uprising. Since the revolution, Mhirsi has worked extensively with international media analyzing the post-revolution political situation, working with outlets such as CNN, Al Jazeera English, 60 Minutes, CBS News, the New York Times, and the Financial Times, to produce news stories, documentaries, and other shows. In March 2011, Mhirsi co-founded Tunisia Live, the first Tunisian English-language news website. Tunisia Live is viewed by more than 100,000 visitors every month and serves as the main Tunisian news platform for English speakers.

In addition to his media activities, Mhirsi is a global health professional whose public health career focuses primarily on strengthening health systems to combat HIV/AIDS and other serious diseases.

Twitter: @zizoo

Blog: http://www.zizoufromdjerba.com/

Website: http://www.tunisia-live.net/ 

Tunisia is situated on the Mediterranean coastline. It has a population of fewer than 11 million people and is the smallest nation in North Africa in land area. In 2010 and 2011, it became the first of the Arab countries to revolt against decades of dictatorial rule, launching the Arab Spring and a wave of change across the region. Tunisia has a developing economy, focused largely on agriculture, tourism, and light industry.

Tunisia has been settled since ancient times. In the 10th century B.C., it was part of the Phoenician Empire. The city of Carthage, near the modern capital of Tunis, was established in the 9th century B.C. In 149 B.C., the Roman Empire conquered the Phoenicians. Islam was introduced to what is now Tunisia in the 7th century A.D., and the area formed part of the Ottoman Empire for centuries. In 1881, Tunisia became a protectorate of France. A strong French cultural element continues to this day.

In 1956, Habib Bourguiba led Tunisia to independence from France. His political party, later known as the Constitutional Democratic Rally, went on to dominate Tunisian politics for more than 50 years. Bourguiba’s Tunisia was a largely secular state and was viewed as one of the most progressive in the Arab world on women’s issues. In 1987, Bourguiba was replaced in a “bloodless coup” by his prime minister, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Ben Ali continued many of Bourguiba’s policies, but ruled with an increasingly heavy hand. The Ben Ali regime was repressive and corrupt, with a dismal human rights record. The regime showed little tolerance for dissent, and lashed out at opposition voices in politics, civil society, and the media.

The Tunisian Revolution began in December 2010, when Mohamed Bouazizi, a young street vendor, set himself on fire in protest over harassment by a local official. Bouazizi’s act led to mass demonstrations across the country, protesting the lack of human rights, poor economic conditions, and corruption and nepotism in the Ben Ali regime. On January 14, 2011, Ben Ali stepped down and fled the country. On October 23, 2011, Tunisia held its first free elections, forming a Constituent Assembly to draft a new constitution and lead the country to general elections. The role of religion in society is among the most important issues facing the assembly and country.

Under the interim Constituent Assembly, Tunisia has experienced considerable political upheaval, but has begun to consolidate its democracy. There is a major fault line between Islamist and secular political forces. In 2013, several political assassinations resulted in widespread protests and demonstrators calling for the nation’s Islamist-led government to be removed. In January of 2014, after two years of debate, the Constituent Assembly ratified the nation’s new constitution. The constitution is considered progressive for the nation and has many human rights guarantees. With the ratification of the constitution, elections are scheduled for autumn 2014.

Freedom House’s 2013 Freedom in the World report categorized Tunisia as “partly free”. The nation received the following ratings on a scale with one being the most free and seven being the least: 3.5 as an overall freedom rating, a four in civil liberties and a three in political rights. Tunisia’s Internet and press were also categorized as “partly free” in subsequent Freedom House reports.