Lina Ben Mhenni ("A Tunisian Girl" blogger; Nobel-nominated free-expression activist) — IJNet interview (~2011): her creed that "Words are weapons that can be used to fight dictatorships," and that "the battle against censorship never ends… fight against self-censorship." The blogger who chronicled the Sidi Bouzid uprising under her real name when media was blacked out.

Words are weapons that can be used to fight dictatorships.

The battle against censorship never ends. We must preserve this new freedom and fight against self-censorship.

[Source is English (International Journalists' Network / IJNet interview with Lina Ben Mhenni; she blogged and gave interviews in English, French and Arabic); tier-2, confirmed verbatim against the fetched page. published_date left NULL: the interview dates to ~2011 (after the 14 January 2011 fall of Ben Ali, which it discusses) but the exact date is not established — not fabricated.] Declared positions of Lina Ben Mhenni (1983–2020) — the Tunisian blogger, linguist and free-expression activist behind "A Tunisian Girl," one of the very few bloggers to use her REAL NAME under Ben Ali's dictatorship. She documented the December 2010–January 2011 uprising from Sidi Bouzid, Regueb and Kasserine — interviewing the families of the dead and photographing the wounded — when state media was pure regime propaganda and international media lacked access, making her a vital independent source for the revolution; for this she was nominated for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize and won numerous journalism/freedom awards. Her creed: free expression and blogging as resistance — "Words are weapons that can be used to fight dictatorships" — and perpetual vigilance against censorship: "The battle against censorship never ends… fight against self-censorship." She extended pan-Arab solidarity to jailed bloggers in Syria, Bahrain and beyond ("you are not alone… all dictatorships will eventually fall"); insisted real change requires action "on the ground," not just online; was a vocal FEMINIST and critic of religious extremism; and after the revolution lamented that it "has been confiscated and our dreams stolen," while remaining hopeful and demanding accountability for protesters killed. This is the TUNISIAN DIGITAL-REVOLUTION / FREE-EXPRESSION / FEMINIST cell — citizen journalism and free speech as the engine and conscience of the Arab Spring, distinct from the politicians and complementing the region's other documentarian-activists (Razan Zaitouneh, Shireen Abu Akleh, Maati Monjib). [Axes: civil-liberties (free expression; anti-censorship; citizen journalism; words as weapons), democracy (the revolution; youth building democracy; accountability for state violence), women / gender (vocal feminism; equality), religion-state (against religious extremism).]