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Attending the annual Arab Press Freedom Forum held last month in Tunis provided me with the opportunity to discuss the progress made and challenges ahead in media reform with colleagues from the region and from the international media development community The debates were vigorous and the opinions diverse, but I came away with a few key points:
 

One year ago, Tunisian president Zine el Abidine ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia, resigned his position, and Tunisia embarked upon its transition to a new political structure. The “Arab Spring,” as it came to be called, has inspired many academics, development professionals, and others to draw comparisons to the events in Eastern Europe that roughly 20 years ago resulted in the dissolution of the Soviet Union.