Monday, November 14, 2005
Un-Freedom of Information Society (WSIS - Tunis)
Journalist gassed, beaten, stabbed, robbed
From: Agence France-Presse - correspondents in Tunis - November 13, 2005
FRENCH journalist investigating human rights abuses in Tunisia was gassed, beaten and stabbed on the eve of a United Nations information technology summit, his editors said overnight.
Christophe Boltanski, 43, a reporter for the left-leaning daily Liberation, was attacked in "suspicious circumstances" on Friday night near his hotel in the embassy district of the capital Tunis, the newspaper said.
The journalist, his face marked by grazes and bruises, described being assaulted by four men with cropped hair and wearing sports clothing who blinded him with a canister of tear gas before throwing him to the ground, punching and kicking him.
He also suffered a knife wound three centimetres long and one centimetre deep to his lower back, before one of the men shouted in French "That's enough" and the men fled.
They stole a bag containing a small amount of cash, notebooks, a USB computer memory key, telephone and a return air ticket to Paris.
The journalist said he shouted for help, but several police guarding the nearby Czech Republic embassy did not intervene.
On Friday, Liberation published a report by Mr Boltanski about clashes between police and activists protesting in support of seven hunger strikers campaigning for the release of 400 "political prisoners" jailed as common criminals. [..] ¶ Monday, November 14, 2005
From: Agence France-Presse - correspondents in Tunis - November 13, 2005
FRENCH journalist investigating human rights abuses in Tunisia was gassed, beaten and stabbed on the eve of a United Nations information technology summit, his editors said overnight.
Christophe Boltanski, 43, a reporter for the left-leaning daily Liberation, was attacked in "suspicious circumstances" on Friday night near his hotel in the embassy district of the capital Tunis, the newspaper said.
The journalist, his face marked by grazes and bruises, described being assaulted by four men with cropped hair and wearing sports clothing who blinded him with a canister of tear gas before throwing him to the ground, punching and kicking him.
He also suffered a knife wound three centimetres long and one centimetre deep to his lower back, before one of the men shouted in French "That's enough" and the men fled.
They stole a bag containing a small amount of cash, notebooks, a USB computer memory key, telephone and a return air ticket to Paris.
The journalist said he shouted for help, but several police guarding the nearby Czech Republic embassy did not intervene.
On Friday, Liberation published a report by Mr Boltanski about clashes between police and activists protesting in support of seven hunger strikers campaigning for the release of 400 "political prisoners" jailed as common criminals. [..] ¶ Monday, November 14, 2005
