TUNIS, 18 November 2005 — Tunisian authorities yesterday refused to allow the head of press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) into the country to attend the UN communications and Internet summit, the organization said.
The Paris-based group said that its secretary general, Robert Menard, was refused entry at Tunis airport.
Menard told colleagues he had arrived in the city at 11:15 am (1015 GMT) on a scheduled flight from Paris when Tunisian officials boarded the plane to say he could not disembark as he was “not accredited” for the World Summit on the Internet Society (WSIS).
“I’m shocked. I have all my papers in order to enter the country, a passport and an accreditation number for the WSIS, and they are telling me I can’t come in,” Menard said in a phone call to a colleague waiting at the airport.
Tunisian authorities have said on several occasions that Menard is “subject to a legal injunction” under which can enter the country only with the permission of a magistrate.
Menard said that after the plane touched down, an announcement on the plane’s public address system told him to stay in his seat.
When other passengers began to disembark, Tunisian officials in plain clothes told him he could not leave.
The issue of Menard had become a “semi-personal” one for Tunisian President Zine el Abidine ben Ali, RSF official Jean-Francois Julliard, who was waiting at the airport, told reporters.
The UN-organized summit is being attended by several government leaders, mainly from Africa, but only a few from rich nations.
It is aimed at finding ways to bridge the so-called “digital divide” between industrialized and developing nations.
It has been dogged by complaints of harassment and threats against rights groups and foreign reporters, reviving protests about Tunisia’s record on freedom of speech and political repression.
On Tuesday, human rights groups said they were cancelling a scheduled meeting to run alongside the summit, alleging harassment by Tunisian authorities.
Tunisian authorities have denied the claim.
