Tunisian court confirms decision to block porn sites

A Tunisian appeal court has rejected a motion by the Tunisian Internet Agency to defer a lower court's May ruling making ATI responsible for blocking Tunisian internet users' access to pornographic websites, AFP reports. One of the three lawyers who brought the original case, Moneem Turki, told the news agency that the court of appeal confirmed the initial decision to censure all pornographic websites despite the ATI counsel having submitted proof that her organisation did not have the financial or technical means to do so. At the end of May, the plaintiffs argued that such websites should be filtered because they constituted a danger to young internet users and went against Moslem values. Although ATI announced that it would file an appeal with the highest court of appeal ("cour de cassation"), the agency is required to comply with the decision immediately.