Two men in plain-clothes went to the home of journalist Slim Boukhdir with his national identity card on 27 August, a day after Reporters Without Borders wrote to the interior minister asking him to intercede on behalf of the journalist, who had been without any ID since his release from prison last month.

When Boukhdir asked the two men to sign a document recording the hand-over of the ID card, they refused and left without giving it to him. "But they came back a few moments later and surreptitiously left my ID card outside a neighbouring house under construction," Boukhdir told Reporters Without Borders.

"The government chose not to give me my ID card according to legal procedures, that is to say, with an official document showing that it had been confiscated since the date of my arrest," Boukhdir added. "After throwing it down, the two men made off. I remind the government that I am still without my passport. Should I look for it under the trees in the garden?

Reporters Without Borders defends imprisoned journalists and press freedom throughout the world. It has nine national sections (Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland). It has representatives in Bangkok, London, New York, Tokyo and Washington. And it has more than 120 correspondents worldwide.