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maintenance of the pre-revolutionary media landscape: No new TV station has been allowed. Just as no daily newspaper has emerged. New titles are edited by political parties and appear as weeklies, most of which incorporate the standard of the tabloid press. After a 9-days hunger strike by Radio Kalima’s manager, Omar Mistiri, twelve regional radios out of 74 candidates were finally selected in late June by the National Authority for Information and Communication Reform (INRIC), a temporary media advisory board. Now, the selected radios are waiting for the governmental permission. At the institutional level, the disappearance of the Communication Ministry does not lead, right now, to more media autonomy. Pre-revolutionary media managers are mainly the same: CEOs, Editors and Chairmen of Board moved from flattery of the ousted president and his system to a doubtful celebration of the “revolution”. In the state-owned media, the turnover of managers is conducted without any transparency just like under the dictatorship. Changes look more like a consequence of power balance between the different clans in the current government than a nascent process towards a democratic media system.

field reporting, which was longtime banned from or depreciated in the official media

The legal status of old private media, especially those belonging to the former president family, is still unclear. Some of them are under jurisdictional managers, but INRIC excluded them for the moment from any ethical obligations. Hannibal TV, owned by a relative to Leila Trabelsi, was involved in many ethical infringements to the Ethical Code like slandering or fake news, before and particularly after the revolution. Larbi Nasra, the Hanibal TV owner, seems to play a political role by receiving political leaders and airing many reports about his own charitable actions. Fethi Houidi, Information Minister under Ben Ali, is still Nessma TV’s CEO. Moez Sinaoui, former Nessma PR man, was nominated as the Interim Prime Minister’s spokesman

“Social media is a positive asset to Tunisian media. It is a source of information for the Tunisian people and the most trusted source of news,” said Hichem Snoussi, a media expert and member of the National Committee of Information and Communication Reform (INRIC). “These sites are the hardest thing for the government to control. Peer-to-peer information sharing destroys the possibility of monopolizing information,” Snoussi continued

“These sites can be bought by people who want influence. They can also foster rumors,” he said.

“Right after the revolution, media regained the trust of Tunisians. The state television channel got 40% of their audience back but now, it’s losing people’s trust again as the government exerts control over the media once more. It’s an issue of trust. People don’t trust traditional sources of news anymore.”

information revealed in an archive has disqualified candidates at the last minute

“It has to be a capable body,” said Manssar, “because it is very powerful and has the authority to shut down a station.”

Ultimately, the Presidency believes that the authority to appoint the membership of HAICA is the President’s alone. After the establishment of HAICA, though, the President would play no role in regulating the media and would not impinge on its freedom, said Manssar.

Touir asserted that the new appointed committee would still incorporate the beneficial aspects of decrees 115 and 116. “Law decrees 115 and 116 contain positive points that will be used. However, there are also negative points that need to be changed, including the law that assigns a prison term for journalists. We are against this law,” he said.

On January 7, former prime minister Ali Laarayedh issued Decree 59-2014, which sets procedures for the legal deposit of periodical and non-periodical publications. Under Article 3 of the decree, printers, producers, editors and distributors are required to submit six copies of new publications to the Prime Ministry before making them available to the public. The decree states that the legal deposit aims at “enriching and consolidating the collection of the national library and the national center of documentation.”

critics of decree 59 fear the stipulation to submit before publication could mean the return of prior censorship practices on books and newspapers

Abdelssalem Zbidi, the prime ministry’s communications officer dismissed the censorship concerns, arguing that the new regulations only conform to the stipulations of Decree 115 of 2011 on freedom of press, printing and publishing. However, under decree 115, the legal deposit is only limited to non-periodical publications, while the new decree also targets periodicals. “This decree diverts a law which exists elsewhere (the deposit of copies of all publications in a country to the national library), to an instrument of political and ideological censorship”, Karim Ben Smail, an editor at Ceres Bookshop, argued