Reporters Without Borders deplores ban on French journalist

Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières - RSF) today denounced the Tunisian government's "disgraceful" refusal to allow a reporter from the French daily paper Le Monde, Jean-Pierre Tuquoi, into the country to cover the 26 May constitutional referendum there. "In the past month, the Tunisian regime has targeted two foreign journalists," said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard in a letter to interior minister Hedi M'henni. "It is disgraceful to do this just a few days before the referendum at a time when many foreign journalists are coming to cover the event." Tuquoi, Le Monde's North Africa expert, was turned back at Tunis-Carthage airport on 16 May, the same day that Reporters Without Borders presented in Paris a "black book" about human rights violations in Tunisia published by Éditions La Découverte. "Tuquoi has never made any secret of his ill will towards Tunisia, through his insults and hostility and his determination to harm the country," the Tunisian authorities said in a communiqué. Tuquoi and Nicholas Beau wrote a book in 1999 called Notre ami Ben Ali: l'envers du 'miracle tunisien (Our Friend Ben Ali: the other side of the 'Tunisian miracle)  (also published by La Découverte), exposing the hidden repressive system in the country and its abuses. Tuquoi had not been to Tunisia since the book appeared. The authorities there regularly censor Le Monde when it carries articles criticising the regime.