Democratic test for Tunisia this weekend

As the first Arab Spring-country to hold post-revolution elections, Tunisia faces a true democratic test this weekend. The country’s media is struggling to keep up

This Sunday thousands of Tunisians head to the polls, set to elect an assembly who will write the country’s new constitution. After 23 years of being told what to write, the Tunisian media is finding it difficult to make full use of their newfound press freedom to cover the more than 100 parties and independent candidates running.

Freedoms left largely unused

To support the media and their role in this crucial time of the emerging Tunisian democracy, International Media Support has been working closely with local partners to monitor the media’s coverage of the election.

Since August, seven daily news papers, four radio stations and four TV stations been examined for their journalistic ethics, balance and professionalism. So far, the newfound press freedom brought about with the revolution in January has not taken root in the media.

“Tunisian journalist have said to me: Now we finally have the press freedom we wanted, but we don’t know what to do with it”, says Lotte Grauballe, Programme Manager for Tunisia at IMS.

Contrary to before, the media is covering the new political pluralism, but critical journalism is still lacking. Also, many of the previous top-level managers in the media remain the same as before the revolution.

New and independent media emerging

Although they have not yet been able to obtain licenses to broadcast, a number of new and independent media outlets have emerged over the past few months.

IMS and the World Association of Community Broadcasters (AMARC) recently carried out an assessment of these new outlets outlining the possibilities to further the positive developments by supporting and training the new and independent initiatives. Click here to read the full assessment.