Internet censorship and surveillance by country have threatened to erode these freedoms just as Internet penetration is starting to affect political life in the country. In the run-up to the 2006 presidential elections, ISPs were asked to voluntarily censor access to an opposition Web site, and other second-generation controls have begun to emerge. Internet censorship in Tunisia significantly decreased in January 2011, following the ouster of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, as the new acting government: Some Internet censorship reemerged when in May 2011: Prior to January 2011 the Ben Ali regime had blocked thousands of websites (such as pornography, mail, search engine cached pages,
Hatem Ben Salem Hatem Ben Salem Hatem Ben Salem is a Tunisian politician. He was the Minister of Education under former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Hatem Ben Salem was born on February 8, 1956. He received a PhD in Law from the University of Paris and the agrégation from the University of Tunis. From 1996 to 2000, he was the Tunisian Ambassador to Senegal, then Guinea, Gambia, Cap Vert, Turkey, and then to the United Nations in Geneva. He is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London and the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg. He