On November 1, a GV Meetup took place in Tunis at 404 Lab an open innovation lab hosted by the Tunisian Internet Agency (ATI).
The meetup was an opportunity to introduce Global Voices to our readers in Tunis. Among the questions raised during the discussions:
- Coverage deficit between northern and Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Transfer of skills: some communities (incl. the MENA region have developed effective alert mechanism to spread the word fast in the vasts regions in MENA. How can we transfer these skills between target communities/groups in our network or generally?
- Protection mechanisms for bloggers/journalists who report to GV on/from security-sensitive regions.
- The challenge of verifying news on social media
During the meetup, participants also talked about their projects and discussed the challenges faced by alternative media and the journalism sector in Tunisia today.
Rafika Bendermel introduced the work of Tunisie Bondy Blog [1], an online publication seeking to break away with the ‘stigmatisation’ of Tunisia’s interior regions.
Lilia Weslati editor-in-chief of Webdo.tn [2] said that one of the challenges she fases at her work is the recrutement of ‘honest journalists’.
Chayma Mehdi talked about Inkyfada [3], a new online media outlet launched in 2014.
The meetup then ended up with a discussion on youth participation in the political life in Tunisia.