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The mass media in Tunisia is an economic sector. Under the authoritarian regimes of Habib Bourguiba, and then Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, it saw periods of liberalization and then challenges, notably due to Tunisian censorship. The 2010-2011 Tunisian protests and the subsequent change in government may bring significant change in this domain.

In 2007, the Tunisian government's Website counted 245 daily newspapers and reviews, grown from 91 in 1987.^[1] These are in large part (90%) owned by private groups and individuals, with much of the press dominated by discussion of government matters. On April 29, 2011, the Minister of the Interior announced authorization was granted to 51 new newspapers and reviews published since the beginning of the revolution.^[2]

History

The first daily newspaper printed in Tunisia appeared on July 22, 1860 under the name Arra'id Attunisi, calling itself "The official journal of the Tunisian Republic", founded by the ruler of that period, Sadok Bey.^[3] The anti-Arab attacks by the Colonial Party and its Editor in Chief, Victor de Carnières, pushed Tunisian intellectuals to launch Le Tunisien in 1907, the first newspaper in the French language in Tunisia, with the aim of influencing the authorities of the Protectorate of Tunisia and French public opinion.

Starting from that date, the number of French-language titles grew to reach 41 in 1956, while the Arab-language press counted 288 titles by that year.^[4] At the beginning of 1991, there were six French language dailies, and nine in Arabic; there were 140 weeklies — 45 in French — and 160 monthly publications.^[5]

Tunisian political parties had the right to publish their own newspapers but those of the political opposition were only published intermittently.^[6] Faced with this situation, in 1991 the government issued a grant of 30,000 Tunisian dinars to each of the parties. Other assistance was also provided to cover other expenses (paper, postage, and so on), but appeared to be granted under unclear criteria.^[6] In a decree amending the law in 1999 relating to public financing of political parties, the government allocated a grant of 120,000 dinars to political party publications and 30,000 dinars to other periodicals. These mechanisms constituted a pressure tactic that the government could use on newspapers that expressed too much criticism of the regime.

Legislation

The Code de la presse de 1975 was revised on August 2, 1988, on July 23, 1993, and on May 3, 2001. It notably banned publications that disturbed public order or "defamed" the authorities, even if the allegations had been proven.^[7] The crime of "defaming public order" was removed from legislation, as was the administrative formality of preemptive filing of newspapers with the Minister of the Interior before publication, on May 27, 2005.

Freedom of the press is guaranteed by the Constitution of Tunisia, although in practice, it has been usual for publications to follow the government line without a critical perspective, and to report the activities of the president, the government and the ruling party, based on dispatches issued by the government Tunis Afrique Presse. This agency has in the past examined some of the subjects "not to the liking of the government." A report by the UN Human Rights Committee in 2000 showed that despite the 188 titles in the Tunisian press, it was marked by its "uniformity of tone". This was recognized by the President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and Prime Minister Hamed Karoui^[8] without introducing significant change. According to Lise Garon, the press followed "an imperious demand to show a smooth image to the outside world", resulting in a kind of "internal unanimity".^[9]

All newspapers and magazines, comprising opposition publications, can benefit from advertising revenue, whether public or private enterprise. However, La Presse de Tunisie, owned by a public company (Société nouvelle d'impression, de presse et d'édition), has held a virtual monopoly, including with respect to Arab-language publications.^[10]

Print media

General publications

Title	Founded	Appears	Language	Ownership
Tunisialive	April, 2011	online	English	Global Productions
Tunisia Daily	May, 2001	online	French / English	Tn Daily Press Editing (since 2001)
Tunis Afrique Presse	January 1, 1961	online	Arabic / French / English
African Manager	Unknown	online	Arabic / French / English
Akhbar Achabab	October 4, 1997	Weekly	Arabic	Dar Al Irada
Akhbar Al Joumhouria	October 13, 1990	Weekly	Arabic	Akhbar Média
Al Adhouaa	1978	Weekly	Arabic	Maison Al Adhouaa d'édition, de presse et de distribution
Al Akhbar	April 1984	Weekly	Arabic	Dar Tunis Hebdo
Al Ahd	November 3, 1993	Weekly	Arabic	Nabil El Bradei
Al Anwar (Tunisian newspaper)	August 16, 1981	Weekly	Arabic	Dar Anwar
Al Chourouk	1987	Daily	Arabic	Dar Anwar
Al Mouharrer	August 2, 2011	Daily	Arabic	Abderrahman Bahloul
Al Moussawar	October 4, 1985	Weekly	Arabic	Dar Anwar
Al Ousboui		Weekly	Arabic	Dar Assabah
Assabah	February 1, 1951	Daily	Arabic	Dar Assabah
Essahafa	January 1989	Daily	Arabic	Société nouvelle d'impression, de presse et d'édition
Essarih	January 3, 1995	Daily	Arabic	Dar Al Irada
L'Expert	April 1996	Daily	French and Arabic	Dar Al Khabir
La Presse de Tunisie	March 12, 1936	Daily	French	Société nouvelle d'impression, de presse et d'édition
Le Quotidien	April 6, 2001	Daily	French	Dar Anwar
Le Temps	June 1, 1975	Daily	French	Dar Assabah
Sabah Al Khair	April 28, 1987	Weekly	Arabic	Dar Assabah
Tunis Hebdo	24 September 1973	Weekly	French	Dar Tunis Hebdo
Tunivisions	1997	Monthly	French	Media Visions Editing (since 2006)
El Distro Network	2017	Monthly	English	Barcids LTD
AlKabar Plus	2016	Daily	Arabic	Nedra Ferchichi
TunisianYouth.com	2020	Daily	Arabic	Tunisian Youth Media Platform
MABAPOST	December, 2019	Biweekly	Arabic / French / English	Mohamed Ali Ben Ammar

News magazines

Title	Founded	Appears	Language	Ownership
Réalités / Haqaieq	January 1979	Weekly	French and Arabic	Maghreb Média

Magazines on economic affairs

Title	Founded	Appears	Language
L'Économiste maghrébin	May 2, 1990	Bimonthly	French
Le Manager	1996	Monthly	French and Arabic
La Tunisie économique	1985	Monthly	French

Political press

Title	Founded	Appears	Language	Details
Al Mawkif	May 12, 1984	Weekly	Arabic	Published by Parti démocrate progressiste
Al Wahda	October 10, 1981	Weekly	Arabic	Published by Parti de l'unité populaire
Attariq Al Jadid	October 7, 1981	Weekly	Arabic	Published by mouvement Ettajdid
Mouwatinoun	January 15, 2007	Weekly	Arabic	Published by Forum démocratique pour le travail et les libertés
Al Fallah	May 14, 1993	Weekly	Arabic	Published by Union tunisienne de l'agriculture et de la pêche
Al Bayane	November 14, 1977	Weekly	Arabic	Published by Union tunisienne de l'industrie, du commerce et de l'artisanat
Echaâb	May 1, 1959	Weekly	Arabic	Published by Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail
Tunis Al Khadhra	March 20, 1976	Bimonthly	Arabic	Published by Union tunisienne de l'agriculture et de la pêche

Niche publications

Defunct publications

Le Tunisien (1907–1912)
Ennasnés
La Dépêche tunisienne
L'Action tunisienne / El Amal (1932–1988)
Erraï (1977–1987)
Le Renouveau / Al Horria (1988–2011)
L'Observateur / El Moulahedh (1993–2011)
L'Audace (1994–2001)
L'Expression (2007–2009)
Tunis-Socialiste (1921-?)

Plagiarism

The institutional Tunisian press is frequently accused by large international newspapers of plagiarism. There have been incidents where print publications have been found to have translated and published material taken from blogs and other online authors, without seeking permission.^[11]^[12]^[13]

Radio and television

Audiovisual media has long been under the domination of the Établissement de la Radiodiffusion-Télévision Tunisienne (ERTT) and its predecessor, Radiodiffusion-télévision tunisienne, founded in 1957. The President of Tunisia, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali announced on November 7, 2006 the splitting up of the organization on August 31, 2007 into separate entities that would oversee Tunisian television broadcasting and Tunisian radio broadcasting.

Television

The Établissement de la Télévision Tunisienne manages the public television stations (Watanya 1 and Watanya 2 which replaced the defunct RTT 2). Since government policy changes in 2003, the television industry has been opened up to the private sector. This resulted in two new channels on Tunisian television: Hannibal TV, Nessma and Nessma EU, and after the Tunisian Revolution several new private channels founded as El Hiwar Et Tounsi, Tunisna TV, TWT, TT1, Zitouna TV, Al-Insen TV, Aljanoubia, Tunisia News Network, Tsport, Al-Qalam TV, and Al-Mutawasit TV.

Television in Tunisia reaches 94% of households. The dominant platform in the market is free satellite, though terrestrial platform reaches around 15% of the households.

Radio

The Établissement de la Radio Tunisienne manages four national public radio stations: (Radio Tunis, Radio Tunisie Culture, Radio Jeunes and RTCI). It also manages five regional stations: Sfax, Monastir, Gafsa, Tataouine and Le Kef.

The majority of radio broadcasts are in Arabic, but some are in French. In 2003, a process of opening the radio industry to the private sector began. Since then, private radio stations have started broadcasting in Tunisia: Mosaïque FM, Jawhara FM, Zitouna FM, Shems FM and Express FM and after the Tunisian Revolution several new private stations founded as Mines FM (Sawt Elmanajem), Kalima FM and Oasis FM.