The press counselor at Tunisia’s embassy in Washington, Taoufik Chebbi, has written in contesting Eli Lake’s March 31 news story about the Tunisian regime’s intimidation of Neila Charchour Hachicha after she gave an interview to al-Jazeera complaining of the lack of free speech in her native land. Mr. Chebbi talks about free speech but neglects to mention that our State Departments human rights report for 2005 says that of the eight “mainstream” dailies in the country, “two were owned by the ruling party, and two, though nominally private, took editorial direction from senior government officials. All media were subject to significant governmental pressure over subject matter.”

If Tunisia’s press is free then why was lawyer Mohamed Abbou charged with disturbing the public order for printing a statement comparing his country’s political prisoners with those held in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq? Why was Ali Ramzi Bettibi arrested in 2005 for posting a statement from Human Rights Watch on a Web site? Mr. Chebbi insists that Tunisia is a pluralistic society and opposition parties are free to compete in federal elections. But he neglects to mention that President Ben Ali racked up at 94% margin of victory in the 2004 vote.

To be sure, Tunisia is not Cuba, Libya or Iran. But we have had enough experience with soft authoritarianism to understand that official detentions, torture and death squads are not always necessary to keep control. Dissidents in Tunisia complain of the kind of intimidation of which Mr. Chebbi says is impossible. Ms. Hachicha told us last month that too many things have happened to her and her family since her interview on al-Jazeera to think this is a coincidence. Her husband has been charged with fraud, her daughter has been humiliated, her car has been stolen, and her friends have been urged to walk away from her. The sad fact about Tunisia is that Ms. Hachicha has more credibility than her government.