LONDON, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- A Tunisian human rights activist told Amnesty International a de facto state of censorship exists in the country nearly three years after its revolution.
Rights activist Lina Ben Mhenni expressed frustration with the detention of Jabeur Mejri, a Tunisian blogger jailed for seven years in 2012 for "undermining public morals" through his Internet campaign.
"Today there is no official censorship -- people can express themselves freely -- but they have to be ready to pay the price," Mhenni said in an interview published Wednesday.
A protest suicide in December 2010 led to a national uprising that unseated longtime leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali the following year. Tunisia's revolution sparked the wave of upheavals known as the Arab Spring.
Mhenni said "a few months of revolutionary euphoria" in Tunisia didn't last very long.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said last week protection for human rights defenders should be extended to the online arena.
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