New York, March 14, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalist mourns the death of cyber-dissident Zouhair Yahyaoui, who died of a heart attack on Sunday, March 13.
Yahyaoui, founder of the Internet forum TUNeZINE, spent 18 months in prison in retaliation for his criticism of Tunisian President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali. He was released in November 2003 and remained in Tunisia to run his site.
“Tunisia has lost a great press freedom advocate,” said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper. “We mourn his passing, but we also hope that others will take inspiration from his important and influential work.”
CPJ published a profile of Yahyaoui in the fall/winter issue of Dangerous Assignments:
