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Victoria Mindova 

In the last six months the terrible changes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, have led the world to pay attention to the struggle for democracy and right to free speech in the countries of North Africa and the Middle East. Social media or the Internet played a crucial role in disseminating information about those changes. Especially at a time when traditional media in these regions is subjected to censorship, which only allows dissemination of distorted truth and shows the country as it would be liked rather than as it is. 

Lina Ben Mhenni, Malek Khadhraoui and Tarek Amr are three freedom activists and bloggers from North Africa who risking their lives every day, reported news about the fall of regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, where conventional media have been blocked. They came to Athens at the invitation of magazine Container and Re-Public to tell about their experiences. 

Lina is 27 years old, assistant at Tunis University. She uses all possibilities social media offers, to communicate everyday about human rights violations in Tunisia. She uses Facebook, Twitter and was awarded for blogger 2011 by Deutsche Welle for the website "A Tunisian Girl". During the protests in December 2010 and January 2011 she traveled around the country, including Sidi Bouzid to record the repression and murders that occurred there. 

"At first people did not believe that a revolution would happen," she says. From day one, activists and bloggers were at the scene, because the mainstream media did not initially report on the facts. When the idea of ​​change began to reach different parts of the country, people began to rise. Eventually the police became very aggressive. There are registered disappearances of activists, thousands of protestants killed and wounded every day. "When the lawyers decided to join the protests, the government did not hesitate and kidnappings have become more frequent." 

Lina showed pictures of the protest of lawyers, gathered with posters in their hands, calling for an end of the regime. Just like horrific before-and-after ads, she showed pictures of some of the same lawyers without clothes with bruises on their bodies from the beatings by the authorities. "Bloggers were the only ones who could post information and photos - that was the only way for people to understand what was happening in the country.” 

After the revolution grows Lina leaves the capital and goes to the provincial cities where riots between police and citizens are the most violent. "On January ninth of this year in Sidi Bouzid nine people were killed. Some of them were activists, but others were just passers-by. Police did not spray any tear gas, nor give any warning. They just shot on meat.” Lina was in the city at the same time and later that evening went to the crime scene to take pictures. The bodies were missing, but the blood on the street was not washed away. 

"People believe that after the withdrawal of the leaders of the regime, today Tunisia is free, but it is not." Lina Ben Mhenni said that there is still violence, people are harassed and abused and the revolution is not over. The government is trying to silence the voices of bloggers. "The fight will not stop until we win the right to free speech and human rights."

The problem with information “blackout” in North African countries is known for years. Blogger and member of the online organization Global Voices from Egypt, Tarek Amr also spoke about the methods of public opinion manipulation, used by totalitarian regimes, through retention or dissemination of false information. The first example that Tarek gave was about a case few years ago when a man was kidnapped and physically abused by the authorities. Cases like this are not uncommon in his country, he says, but the media tend not to disclose them and try to ignore them. 

A fellow blogger notified about the case through YouTube and as a result the international community raised and requested more information. As a result, the local media also joined the investigation, which ultimately led to the conviction of the perpetrator. "This would have never happened if there were no social media, which are still struggling with censorship," said the activist. 

The second case of public opinion manipulation was during the football World Cup when Egypt had to play against Algeria in 2008. From morning till night the media aired broadcasts on how the Algerian football fans have gone armed to the game, ready to kill peaceful Egyptians who went to see the match. Even local celebrities said they were witnesses and told the public that their lives were in danger because of the Algerian fans. "This was so convincing that even bloggers and activists that question every claim by the authorities, were convinced that this was the exact course of the events. It turned out not to be." A year after the event an evidence came out that the story was highly exaggerated by the order of the regime, in order to shape public opinion in a manner desired by the government.