Tunisia: Young Media Summit

"Our work isn't over yet and neither is the revolution," said Tunisian blogger Ramzi Bettaieb at the Young Media Summit in Tunis. "We can point out things that aren't heading in the right direction and draw people’s attention to them."

DW Akademie had organized the three-day meeting in the Tunisian capital together with the bloggers' collective Nwaat and Radio Kalima. Some 30 young bloggers from Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Germany took part. Michael Tecklenburg, deputy head of DW Akademie's Africa division said, "This is the right time to be discussing the future of the bloggers as well as the future of the media."

A discussion on differences between the North African and German blogospheres was part of the program and was conducted by Asiem El Dhifraoui, an analyst with the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. Participants also visited some of the primary revolution locations. And the Tunisian bloggers showed where they had been and how they had experienced the upheaval. "It's hard to digest all these impressions right now," wrote German blogger Eva Schulz in her blog, "Hurra!"

A workshop with consultant Christian Baier on financing projects and simulating project proposals was also part of the program, as was a podium discussion on the risks and dangers for bloggers, with Olivia Gré, head of the newly-opened Reporters Without Borders office, Ramzi Bettaieb from the Nawaat blog collective and political analyst Asiem El Dhifraoui. Gré emphasized that bloggers needed as much protection as journalists.

Mélissa Rahmouni, a Franco-Algerian participant, pointed to the increasing censorship in Algeria, saying it was putting many bloggers in danger. She encouraged a more intense dialogue with Tunisian bloggers on how they were protecting themselves from surveillance.

This December DW Akademie is holding an additional workshop in Tunisia in which bloggers and journalists will work jointly on issues pertaining to online ethics and responsibilities.