Open letter to Wanadoo's director general: "As you surely don't know..."

As Wanadoo is on the point of announcing a partnership with Tunisia's leading Internet operator, Reporters Without Borders points out that Tunisia censors the Internet and imprisons its users. Letter to Olivier Sichel, Director General of Wanadoo Dear Mr. Sichel, We have learned with amazement that the company you head will, in the coming days, announce the launch of a strategic partnership with the Tunisian Internet operator Planet. We are perfectly aware that Wanadoo is a private company and that it is not your job to defend human rights, but we believe that investing in the Tunisian Internet raises a number of ethical issues to which we would like to draw your attention. We are moreover convinced that you are unaware of the facts that we are going to present to you and that, once alerted, you will agree with us that this partnership will have a negative impact on the image of your company, in which the French state has a 40 per cent stake. As you surely do not know, the Tunisian government, after already completely gagging the traditional media, has set up a very effective system of Internet filtering. Using the Internet access provider Planet, your future partner, it blocks access to all the political websites critical of President Ben Ali, as well as those of the main international human rights organizations. Even the Reporters Without Borders site, www.rsf.org, has been inaccessible for years in Tunisia. As you surely do not know, a Tunisian lawyer, Mohammed Abou, has been imprisoned for more than a month for posting an article on the Internet about prison conditions for political detainees in Tunisia. At the same time that you are covering Tunis walls with posters announcing Wanadoo's arrival in Tunisia, dozens of Tunisian lawyers are staging a sit-in at the bar association to demand their cyber-dissident colleague's release. As you surely do not know, eight young Tunisian Internet users from the southern town of Zarzis received sentences of up to 26 years in prison for visiting websites considered illegal by the authorities. They are now languishing in prison in horrifying conditions. As you surely know, the Internet has become an essential vehicle for news and information, especially in countries where the traditional media are under the government's control. Helping the Internet to grow in a developing country is obviously a laudable aim, but we must warn you that if you try to do this in Tunisia, you will have to accommodate to its government's systematic violations of free expression. I hope this letter will have enlightened you as to a situation about which you were clearly unfamiliar. We remain at your disposal should you wish additional information. Sincerely, Robert Ménard Secretary-General