Ben Ali Keeps Interior Minister; Fires Communications Minister

Tunisian President Ben Ali continues to blame the messenger: in a Cabinet reshuffle he has kept his Interior Minister in place but dismissed Communications Minister Oussama Romdhani, having already blamed the foreign media for stirring up unrest.

I've got to admit to a conflict of interest here: I've known Dr. Romdhani since his days as a young Tunisian Press Agency (TAP) correspondent in Washington; he did graduate work at my alma mater, Georgetown, and was a fixture in DC for most of the 1980s, first as a journalist and then as the press officer of the Tunisian Embassy. He eventually rose to be head of the Tunisian External Communications Agency, and cultivated many French and American journalists, winning Tunisia a lot of good press. He's a good and talented man who deserved to represent a better government. About a year or so ago he became Commumications Minister. Now he's lost that job, apparently for being unable to persuade the foreign press to put a positive spin on the present troubles.

Interior Minister Rafik Belhaj Kacem, whose resignation has been demanded by the demonstrators, kept his job.