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Alert

RSF secretary-general prevented from attending WSIS

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has expressed outrage after the Tunisian authorities turned back its Secretary General, Robert Ménard, on his arrival in Tunis to attend the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

Plainclothes Tunisian police officers physically prevented Ménard from leaving an Air France plane after it touched down in Tunis on 17 November 2005. One officer told the head of the worldwide press freedom organisation that he had no right to get off the plane since he did not have accreditation for the WSIS.

Reporters Without Borders said, "We are also staggered by the complicity of the organisers of the World Summit on the Information Society and to some extent, France, which did nothing to ensure his attendance at this international summit."

"From being a masquerade, the WSIS has turned into a scandal," the organisation added.

As Ménard was prevented from leaving the plane, another police officer filmed the incident without permission from the Air France crew.

Ménard told police that it was untrue he did not have accreditation. His UN accreditation number is 10 30 191. He received no further explanation from police officers at the door of the plane and on the tarmac. The plane's captain told him to stay on board and issued him a return ticket on the same aircraft.

Robert Ménard was due to arrive back at Roissy CDG (Paris) at 2:20 p.m. (local time) on AF 1985.

No WSIS organiser nor any representative of the French embassy had been present to receive him in Tunis.

Executive director of the WSIS, Charles Geiger, had said in a statement on 16 November that Robert Ménard was not welcome at the summit, although his office had given him accreditation. He referred to a claim made by the Tunisian authorities that an official complaint had been laid against Ménard in Tunisia.

Geiger admitted that he had not confirmed the existence of the complaint. Moreover, the president of the Tunisian bar told Reporters Without Borders's lawyer that he was unaware of any such complaint.