The Tunisian media is accused of mirroring common tensions in the country, with a split emerging between those who support the continuation of the Troika rule and those who want to overthrow it.
Following the overthrow of fomer dictator Ben Ali in 2011, Tunisians started to believe that they would finally have a free media, independent of any political party or politically-motivated financial influence. But recent cases of censorship and partisanship have raised alarms that nothing has changed.
With us or against us
The Tunisian media is accused of mirroring common tensions in the country, with a split emerging between those who support the continuation of the Troika rule and those who want to overthrow it.
Following the overthrow of fomer dictator Ben Ali in 2011, Tunisians started to believe that they would finally have a free media, independent of any political party or politically-motivated financial influence. But recent cases of censorship and partisanship have raised alarms that nothing has changed.
With us or against us
On Wednesday July 31, a programme by Tunisian female journalist Saeeda al-Zubi, broadcast on a public radio station from the capital city, was interrupted. The director of programming stopped the radio broadcast because he considered that the rhetoric used in the programme “did not respect the principles of neutrality” and “spreads tension and fear in the street.”
The suspended broadcast featured Mustafa al-Touati, a professor of Islamic civilization at the Tunisian University, who presented an analytical reading of the recent terrorist events that took place in Tunisia, blaming the government for the violence and terrorism.
But free media activists accuse several radio and TV stations of bias in recent political coverage. Throughout the month of July, the al-Zaytounah TV channel, the al-Mutawaset and the Tunisia News Network (TNN) were defending the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, covering their sit-ins in the Rabia al-Adawiya Square. But they did not show any coverage of other protests taking place in Egypt.
The network coverage of Egyptian news was manipulated to serve the interests of the Brotherhood, say critics. A brief look at the ownership of some media houses suggests why.
Government parrots?
The owner of the al-Zaytounah channel is Osama bin Salem, the son of the higher education minister and a leading member of the Ennahda Movement. The al-Mutawaset and TNN are also accused of having close ties to the Ennahda Movement.
Moreover, the public al-Zaytounah radio station, which is considered a public-owned facility, also seems to have abandoned the principle of neutrality. It hosted many guests with the aim of spreading one message: each Muslim should be an Islamist. The radio station accused the opposition of infidelity and called for confronting its masses and fighting them. It seems that messsage could become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The accused channels deny rumous of bias, but protesters in the streets are convinced. Among leaflets distributed at recent sit-ins were slogans that read “The Righteous Channels”: the names and logos of the al-Mutawasert, al-Zaytounah, al-Insan and al-Qalam channels sat beside the slogan.
A tale of two on-air struggles
Yet just like the media which is loyal to the ruling party is fighting vigorously to defend it, there are other channels which are constantly criticizing the government. Al-Taher bin Hussein, a leading member of the Nidaa Tounes Movement and the owner of the al-Hiwar al-Tounisi (Tunisian Dialogue) channel has publicly called for the overthrow of the Troika government and for the formation of a national salvation government on his channel.
Hussein called on Tunisians to gather in front of the National Constituent Assembly in Bardo Square and not to leave it until the Troika government and the constituent assembly are dissolved.
The absence of neutrality in the media can best be depicted when one compares the way the two sit-ins, only a few metres apart, were covered by different media outlets. The Islamists and the media outlets which support them only covered the al-Kasbah sit-in and did not cover the events at the anti-government sit-in in Bardo Square. They treated Bardo Square as if it were empty. Their opponents only covered events at the Bardo ‘Leave sit-in’. Both sides deny that they are not neutral.
Grim picture
“Many media outlets published photos of the late Mohamed Brahmi, the member of the constituent assembly who was assassinated on the 25th of July and the pictures of the Tunisian army members who were killed during confrontations with terrorists on July 29 which were showing signs of torture on their bodies,” Al-Nouri al-Lajmi, the head of the Supreme Commission for Audiovisual Media, told Correspondents by telephone.
“Broadcasting these pictures shows that there is a lack of respect for human rights as stipulated in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and Chapter 5 of the decree number 116 of the year 2011 of the Supreme Commission for Audiovisual Media. The pictures were shocking for viewers,” says al-Lajmi, lamenting a lack of broadcast sensitivity. “They could incite terror and fear and thus they may indirectly serve the aims of terrorists.”
The head of the media watchdog says some channels are sacrificing factual accuracy to serve the aims of a certain party. “The media should investigate the correctness of news before publishing,” says al-Lajmi.
The president of the Supreme Commission called on the officials responsible for the media to respect professionalism and the ethics of their profession.
So far, offending media oulets have only been warned, but tougher measures could follow soon. “In the coming weeks, the commission will take decisions to ban the broadcast of some programs which call for sedition and which serve the interests of certain political parties if these media outlets do not respect the notifications issued by us,” al-Lajmi told Correspondents.
“This is a preventive measure in order to ensure distancing the media away from becoming a part of the discord and its repercussions.”
Media freedoms: A cornerstone
Rashid Khashaneh, a journalist, believes that press freedom is a “cornerstone in the building of a democratic system”.
“With freedom there is always responsibility in all areas,” says Khashaneh. “It is necessary to adjust the freedom of expression border lines and to specify standards for the practice of media work by setting ethical standards such as a professional code of ethics and by deterrent methods when necessary,” he explained. “It is important to have revisionist bodies such as those which have appeared in countries that have a long history in democracy.”
Khashaneh says the existing media watchdog in Tunisia is the first step in this direction. “Broadcasting painful pictures of slaughtered soldiers on TV channels requires urgent and strict deterrent measures,” says the journalist.
“All channels and radio stations should give equal time for opinions and counter opinions in order to allow the audiences to be aware of all stances and then determine their own in a comprehensive and objective manner.”
Amidst the ping-pong accusations, many Tunisians have resorted to social network sites to extinguish their thirst for truth.
