The man threatening the Tunisian regime and its once privileged alliance with Paris is not an Islamic fundamentalist, extreme leftist or coup-plotting colonel. Tewfik Ben Brik is merely a journalist trying to do his work, demanding the right to travel and write freely and the liberation of his brother, who goes on trial today for arguing with policemen who surround the family home.
Mr Ben Brik is the Tunis correspondent for the French Catholic daily La Croix. Since he began a hunger strike on April 3rd, he has lost nearly 20 kg. When he briefly went into a coma last week, his wife Aza Zarad complained that he was entrusted to policemen in white coats, masquerading as doctors.
To mark World Press Freedom Day today, the Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders will distribute thousands of photographs of the 39-year-old Tunisian journalist. In just one month, Mr Ben Brik has come to symbolise the lack of freedom within Tunisia. He has extended the circle of opposition to President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali from a handful of human rights activists and has heightened awareness of the abuses of the regime abroad, especially in France.
Although Mr Ben Brik's hunger strike has not been mentioned in the government-controlled Tunisian press, it has led to street demonstrations by young and unemployed people in several Tunisian towns. More serious for the regime, a dozen high-level officers - including the commanders of the riot police and the national guard - have been arrested for criticising President Ben Ali's handling of the affair.
Since he overthrew the late President Habib Bourguiba 13 years ago, Mr Ben Ali, a former interior minister, has grown steadily more oppressive. Yet Western powers supported him because they saw him as a bulwark against "Islamic fundamentalism", and because the Tunisian economy prospered. The lack of civil liberties, systematic police torture and corruption were deliberately ignored by Washington and European capitals. A strong pro-Tunis lobby in France - led by the Gaullist member of the National Assembly and candidate for the Paris mayor's office, Mr Philippe Seguin - continued to praise Mr Ben Ali. In an interview to be published today, Mr Seguin asked that Western countries to "give this country time to find its own way" before criticising its human rights record.
By holding a press conference at the headquarters of Reporters Without Borders, Mr Ben Brik's sister Najet has embarrassed French authorities into distancing themselves from the Ben Ali regime. Using the words made famous by Zola in the Dreyfus affair, Ms Ben Brik read her brother's statement. "J'accuse Jacques Chirac for having been the most faithful supporter of the ignominious Ben Ali regime," the man who has become the conscience of Tunisia wrote, asking Mr Chirac "to join a battle that embodies the values of Republican France, dear to my heart".
Before Mr Ben Brik's hunger strike, street protests over the expeditious and discreet burial last month of Mr Bourguiba - the father of Tunisian independence - had already embarrassed President Ben Ali. His "re-election" with 99.4 per cent of the vote last October was worthy of a banana republic.