Reporters Sans Frontières

Published on 14 March 2005

Reporters Without Borders voiced its deep regret today at the death of the young Tunisian cyber-dissident, Zouhair Yahyaoui, 36, the founder and editor of the online newspaper TUNeZINE, who died yesterday of a heart attack.

"We offer our condolences to the family and friends of Zouhair," the press freedom organization said. "This young man was a courageous activist and resolute defender of free expression in his country. He always fought for the right to freely inform his fellow citizens. Even prison failed to silence him.

"Tunisia has lost one of its most active supporters of the struggle for a greater democracy. Zouhair had managed to open a breach in the tightly controlled Tunisian Internet. His efforts were not in vain and it is now up to us to continue the fight."

Yahyaoui woke yesterday with pains in his chest and died a few hours later at the Habib Thameur hospital in Tunis. His funeral will take place today. Reporters Without Borders immediately sent a representative to express its condolences personally to the family.

Using the pseudonym "Ettounsi," which means Tunisian in Arabic, Yahyaoui founded the website tunezine.com in July 2001 as a way to circulate information about the situation of freedoms in Tunisia. He also posted opposition statements on the site, and was the first to publish an open letter to the president by Judge Mokhtar Yahyaoui criticising the judicial system.

The Tunis appeal court sentenced him to two years in prison for "disseminating inaccurate news" on 10 July 2002, a few weeks after plain-clothes police arrested him in an Internet cafe. During interrogation he was subjected twice to a form of torture in which the victim is made to hang from his arms with his feet barely touching the ground. He received a conditional release on 18 November 2003.