**Updates IFEX alert of 6 and 4 April 2000. For further background information on the Taoufik Ben Brick case, see IFEX alerts of 19 and 8 October, 30 September, 12 July, 27, 25, 20 and 14 May, 28 April, 29 and 13 January 1999 and 24 June 1998** (RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF […]
**Updates IFEX alert of 6 and 4 April 2000. For further background information on
the Taoufik Ben Brick case, see IFEX alerts of 19 and 8 October, 30 September, 12 July, 27, 25, 20 and 14 May, 28 April, 29 and 13 January 1999 and 24 June 1998**
(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF press release:
10 April 2000: For immediate release
Journalist Taoufik Ben Brick in court again after a week on hunger strike
Independent journalist Taoufik Ben Brick has been on hunger strike in Tunis since 3 April at the offices of the publishing company Aloès. The reporter, who works as a correspondent for Reporters Sans Frontières, the French daily La Croix and the news agencies Infosud and Syfia, started the hunger strike a week ago in protest at the interior ministry’s refusal to return his passport.
On 10 April, thinner and weaker, he appeared for the second time before the chairman of the magistrates, Noureddine Ben Ayed. The journalist, who is also a member of the National Council for Liberties in Tunisia (CNLT), has been charged over two articles published in foreign newspapers. The first was a review of the book “Our friend Ben Ali” by French journalists Jean-Pierre Tuquoi and Nicolas Beau which initially appeared in the Swiss daily Le Courrier. The second piece, published by the Swiss daily La Tribune de Genève, discussed police harassment of Tunisian publisher Sihem Ben Sedrine. Charged with “publishing false information” and “offending public institutions”, Taoufik Ben Brick faces up to six years in prison if found guilty.
In a country where press freedom simply does not exist, Taoufik Ben Brick has been a prime target for the government of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali because he works for foreign media. In recent months the authorities have stepped up their campaign of intimidation against him. With anonymous threatening phone calls, his phone and fax lines cut, his home kept under police surveillance, his car vandalised, insults and pressure during interrogation by the interior ministry and confiscation of his passport, harassment has become the journalist’s daily lot. On 24 March 2000, after receiving another invitation to the “North-South Media” festival, Taoufik Ben Brick wrote to the interior minister asking for his passport back. The ministry responded quickly….by cutting his telephone line four days later.
The state of freedom of speech in Tunisia was condemned last week at the 56th session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. The special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and freedom of speech, Abid Hussain, said in his report on 6 April: “Tunisia has made considerable progress recently but it still has a long way to go to adopt measures to strengthen the protection of human rights, and in particular the right to freedom of speech.”
On 9 April, Robert Ménard, the RSF general secretary, was one of about 100 people at an unauthorised meeting on press freedom in Tunis. Members of a support committee set up for Taoufik Ben Brick also attended. Robert Ménard sharply condemned the Tunisian authorities’ attitude, saying: “It is intolerable that, in a country like Tunisia which pretends to be a democracy, a journalist is forced to go on hunger strike simply to obtain a passport.”
Once again, Reporters Sans Frontières urges the Tunisian government to put an end to the harassment of Taoufik Ben Brick and his family and to return his passport to him as soon as possible so that he can travel and practice his profession freely.
