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December 11, 2003

Ben's Best Bet. Ben - aka Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia's President for the past 16 years - is clearly working on the "publicly done deal" principle over hosting WSIS 2. Aware of mutterings during the WSIS 1 PREPCOMS about his record on journalistic freedom, he is ignoring them and devoting his time to selling his country as host-designate.

His sales pitch includes photo-calls of himself, "Tunis 2005" baseball caps and teashirts available in Tunisia's stand conveniently located in a prestige position and references to WSIS in major speeches, not just this week in Geneva but last week when welcoming French President Jacques Chirac to Tunis.

Full marks though, for for his campaign literature and his polite staff on the stand.

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