21/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - Hélène Flautre (Greens/EFA, France), Chair of the EP sub-committee on human rights, and Francis Wurtz, President of the GUE/NGL Group, are organising for 25 October on the sidelines of the session in Strasbourg a hearing on freedom of expression and human rights in Tunisia. The president of the Tunisian League of Human Rights (LTDH) will take part at the hearing at the same time as other Tunisian personalities, including the wife of a lawyer imprisoned in Tunis. The hearing, which comes the day before the world information society summit (SMSI), end November in Tunis, also coincides with toughening of the Tunisian authorities against the opposition whose representatives have decided to go on hunger strike to protest against the muzzling imposed on political parties and civil society associations in preparation for the SMSI. Those on strike were visited by the European Commission delegation headed by the deputy direction of the mission in Tunis.