On the 10th July 2010, I was lying in a bed in one of El-Sahel hospitals, recovering from a sickness in my lungs, while outside there were troops of political police waiting to arrest me. They were there to execute an unfair four-year prison sentence for my reporting on a protest demanding employment and social justice in the mining region of Gafsa. Yet this did not stop me from saying my words loud, which were conveyed by several media both inside and outside Tunisia: “When I chose journalism as a profession, I chose to take the side of the free, honest word, with no bias except for the truth. I know very well the high price that I shall pay for taking this path, but I will not be less daring or courageous than my predecessors; I will not fear unfair sentences; I will not shirk paying the price, even if this means my life. Let my life be the price and the redemption for freedom and democracy.”
