Tunis, Tunisia – The back room in the restaurant near Mosaique FM Tunis’s offices is deserted. In a corner, Tunisian political commentator Haythem El Mekki speaks as he eats. Between mouthfuls, he lists the litany of threats and abuse he has received since the country’s 2011 revolution.
“I’ve been targeted on a daily basis and on a massive level since the revolution,” he says. “I’ve been threatened physically dozens of times,” he adds, before describing the two distinct assassination threats from hardline groups that required police intervention. He pauses, thinking: “They’ve also sent ricin [a poison] to the radio station where I was working.”
