ASSAULT OF FRENCH JOURNALIST IN TUNISIA PROMPTS MEDIA OUTCRY, DOMESTIC CRITICISM OF GOF HUMAN RIGHTS POLICY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 007777

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/7/2015
TAGS: PREL, PHUM, KDEM, TS, FR
SUBJECT: ASSAULT OF FRENCH JOURNALIST IN TUNISIA PROMPTS
MEDIA OUTCRY, DOMESTIC CRITICISM OF GOF HUMAN RIGHTS POLICY

REF: 03 PARIS 8954

Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Josiah Rosenblatt, reasons
1.4 (b) and (d).

1. (C) Summary: The November 11 assault of a French
journalist in Tunis by unknown assailants widely believed to
belong to the Tunisian security services has prompted an
outcry among French media, which has harshly criticized GoF
complacency on Tunisia's human rights situation, with some
leading dailies and opposition politicians calling for the
France to boycott the World Summit for the Information
Society (WSIS). The GoF response, meanwhile, has been
limited to cautious MFA statements calling for the Tunisian
government to shed light on the attack and respect freedom of
information. MFA contacts confirmed that the controversy
will not result in a GoF boycott of the WSIS, though the GoF
delegation head, currently Finance Minister Breton, may be
downgraded to a junior minister level, depending on the
degree to which the issue continues to generate domestic
controversy. MFA contacts privately expressed pessimism on
prospects for improvement in Tunisia's human rights situation
in the wake of the WSIS, and were similarly negative on the
likelihood of France taking a tougher stance on Tunisian
human rights, as long as Chirac remains president. End
summary.

2. (SBU) French media continues to report widely on the
attack on "Liberation" correspondent Christophe Boltanksi,
who was beaten and stabbed by four unknown assailants late
November 11 in Tunis, after having extensively reported on
human rights abuses on the eve of the GOT-hosted WSIS.
Several French newspapers, led by "Liberation," have
suggested that Boltanski's attack was perpetrated by Tunisian
security services, though the identities of the attackers
remain unknown and there is no definitive evidence.
Boltanski, who did not require hospitalization and returned
to France shortly after the attack, declared in press remarks
that his attackers took their time, stole his bag containing
interview notes, and were not stopped by the very heavy
police presence in the diplomatic quarter where the attack
took place. Boltanksi dismissed the likelihood that the
attack was criminally motivated, noting that foreign
journalists in Tunisia are heavily monitored and that human
rights activists in Tunisia have faced similar attacks from
plain-clothes Tunisian security service officials. Follow-up
incidents of alleged GOT harassment of Belgian and Swiss
journalists and a French "TV 5" news crew in Tunis continued
to attract heavy French media coverage November 16.

3. (SBU) In a November 13 statement issued some 40 hours
after the Boltanski assault took place, the MFA declared, "We
have made it known to the Tunisian authorities, in Paris and
in Tunis, that we are counting on them to shed all light
possible on the attack..." In a follow-up statement November
15, FM Douste-Blazy called on the GOT to respect freedom of
information and not impede the work of journalists attending
the WSIS, without protesting the Boltanski assault.
"Liberation" November 14 decried the GoF's belated and mild
reaction to the Boltanski attack and recurring human rights
abuses in Tunisia, which it ascribed to longtime complacency
by President Chirac towards the human rights situation in
Tunisia, as a means of protecting French commercial and
strategic interests there. "Liberation" and several other
French dailies cited Chirac's widely reported comments during
a December 2003 visit to Tunisia (reftel),in which he
dismissed the concerns of protesting civil society activists
in Tunisia and described the right to food as paramount above
political liberties. "Liberation" concluded that the French
president had shown himself to be closer to Moscow and Havana
on human rights issues, than fellow Western democracies. A
November 15 "Le Monde" editorial went further in making
unfavorable comparisons between French and U.S. policy
towards Tunisia, noting that the U.S. had not hesitated to
call publicly for Tunisia to pursue political and human
rights reforms, while France "did not have such courage."
The "Le Monde" editorial concluded by calling on France to
abstain from attending the WSIS, or, at minimum, to pressure
Tunisia via the EU to comply with its EU association
agreement obligations, which remained a "dead letter."
Leaders of the opposition French Socialist party (PS) echoed
the call for a WSIS boycott and called on the GoF to issue an
"official protest" of the Boltanski assault.

4. (C) MFA Tunisia desk officer Christian Reigneaud told us
November 14 that the Boltanski attack would not affect GoF
participation in the WSIS, for which Minister of
Economy/Finance Thierry Breton would lead the French
delegation. In a follow-up discussion November 15, Reigneaud
was more cautious, and noted that the degree of French media
attention on the attack and consequent criticism of GoF human
rights policy was unprecedented. While Reigneaud affirmed
that a GoF boycott of the WSIS was out of the question, he
conceded that there was a slim possibility that the
delegation head might be downgraded to the junior minister
level, depending on the degree to which the issue continued
to generate controversy, especially during the weekly
audience by FM Douste-Blazy before the National Assembly
foreign relations committee November 15. Reigneaud commented
that the GoT had viewed the GoF decision to send Breton to
the WSIS as an "insult," given that the French PM had
attended the first WSIS summit and that Tunis had lobbied
unsuccessfully for Chirac's attendance.

5. (C) Reigneaud remained skeptical on prospects for finding
Boltanski's attackers or for any near-term improvement in
Tunisia's human rights situation in the aftermath of the
WSIS. While noting there was no evidence of GoT involvement
in the Boltanski assault, he mused that the GoT was effective
in covering up such matters. Stressing that he was
expressing personal views, Reigneaud speculated that the
modest gestures which Tunisia had made in the run-up to the
WSIS -- allowing access to banned websites, for instance --
would evaporate as soon as the WSIS had ended, with the GoT
likely to crack down on the hunger strikers as well. Pressed
for details on how the GoF was articulating its human rights
concerns to the GOT, Reigneaud offered few details. He noted
that the French embassy in Tunis, for the first time, had
received a representative of the eight hunger strikers
November 14, though the GoF had opted not to send any emboffs
to meet the hunger strikers themselves, which he said would
cross a "red line" for the GoF and provoke a crisis with the
GoT. Explaining the degree to which the GoF sought to
accommodate the GoT on human rights concerns, Reigneaud noted
that when French FM Douste-Blazy met with representatives of
the Tunisian League of Human Rights (LTDH) during a visit to
Tunis last October, the French MFA received a delegation of
pro-GOT LTDH members, as a quid pro quo requested by the GOT.

6. (C) Pressed to explain why the GoF could not speak more
forcefully with Tunisia on human rights, given the friendship
between the two countries, Reigneaud (protect) commented that
"everyone" in the MFA wanted to see the GoF take a more
activist stance on political repression in Tunisia, which was
entirely without justification, as a political opening posed
no risk to the stability of the GoT. On the contrary,
continued suppression of basic political liberties by the
GoT, out of step with Tunisia's economic success and educated
population, could spell trouble for Tunisia's long-term
stability and open the door to Islamist influence. Reigneaud
concluded, though, that, despite media criticism and the
preferences of working level MFA officials, GoF human rights
policy on Tunisia would remain unchanged as long as Chirac
remained President. In Reigneaud's view, the French leader's
ties with Ben Ali were too long-standing for the French
president to adopt a new approach.

7. (C) Comment: We view this controversy as indicative of the
degree to which President Chirac's "stability first" and
tradition of cultivating close relations with aging Arab
world dictators is increasingly out of step with current
realities and prevailing media opinion in France. While the
media focus on the Boltanski attack may subside in coming
days, we expect that the GoF will remain vulnerable to
further domestic criticism for inaction on human rights
issues in Tunisia -- as the MFA speculated, as long as Chirac
remains president. End comment.
Please visit Paris' Classified Website at:
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/paris/index.c fm
Hofmann