What is private, what is public, and who exercises media power in Tunisia? A hybrid-functional perspective on Tunisia's media sector

Abstract

What is the function of the media in post-2011 Tunisia? As the media provides knowledge, message, and reach across a nation, it is a critical tool within the political sphere. As Tunisia undergoes systemic socio-political change, what role is the media playing? How is ‘public’ now being defined? How is the sector changing its own professional practices in the face of a liberated public sphere, and how are media owners responding to market shifts and new faces in the government? These and other questions seeking to understand changes in Tunisia's Fourth Estate over the three years since President Ben Ali was ousted will be analysed through the lens of hybrid theory. As the process of adapting past practices and institutions to new ideological aspirations takes place in Tunisia, hybrid theory offers a means to observe the multiple elements contributing to that process – seeing them as non-linear, intersecting, at times harmonious, and at others, interrupting democratic processes as competing elites – including government officials, and media owners or investors – attempt to capture state power and market share. In analysing the evolution of three separate but related groupings within the media sector: the public (national radio, television, and news agency); the private (with the main focus on the audio-visual sector); and the independent organs for regulation that buffer the state from the media, a picture of elite competition between new democratic and old embedded elites emerges. The push-and-pull between journalists and enterprise owners, between government appointees and line-reporters, and between outlets promoting political agendas and those that do not, are today all part of the new stakes at play in defining Tunisia's Fourth Estate.

Keywords:

• Tunisia
• media
• elites
• hybridity
• television

Funding

This research was funded by the University of Cambridge–al-Jazeera Centre for Studies Media Project. The author would like to thank al-Jazeera Media Network for its generous support in making this research possible.

Notes

1. For a review of other sectors, see Bertelsmann Transition Index (2014) Tunisia Country Report.pdf

2. http://www.tunisia-live.net/2013/05/03/on-international-press-freedom-day-progress-for-local-media/

3. Ibid.

4. Analysis in this article draws from over 100 interviews conducted in Tunisia between September 2013 and June 2014 which included journalists, bloggers, web-activists, media owners, academics, pollsters, advertisers, and other media agencies, media lawyers, editors, talk-show hosts, media regulators, and many others in the field.

5. BBC ActionTunisia_research_summary_Oct 2013.pdf; www.bbc.co.uk/mediaaction/publicationsandpress/policy_media_iraq.html; Sigma Media Scan (2013); Harris Interactive Inc. Northwestern University of Qatar (2013).

6. Riadh Ferjani, HAICA, interview with author, 08/04/2014, Tunis.

7. Nouri Lajmi, head of HAICA; interview with author, 10/11/2013.

8. Ottoway (2003, 171) argues that in the past, state formation preceded democratic transformation, a situation no longer necessarily the case in many nations undergoing political change, sparked not least because they are failed or semi-formed states where the process is on-going. For a media theoretical perspective, see John Corner (2011).

9. Ibid. 176; IFIT (2013).

10. See also Bertelsmann Transition Index (2014) Tunisia Country Report.pdf, 22.

11. Edward Said's notion of the ‘contrapuntal’, in which ‘various themes play off one another, with only a provisional privilege being given to any particular one; yet in the resulting polyphony there is a concert and order’ (Said 1994) is particularly apt here and has inspired other scholars to utilise the concept to understand analytical problems (Chadwick 2013, 10).

12. Eve Sabagh, Director, BBC Media Action, interview with author, 22/10/2013, Tunis.

13. Chokhri Ben Nasir interview with author, 20/11/2013.

14. Amel Smaoui-Zampol, interview with author, 14/10/2013.

15. El-Issawi (2012).

16. Author interview with member of the financial committee of the political party Ettekatol, one of the three parties composing the then Troika government; Tunis, 10/04/2013; Rijkers, Freund, and Nucifora (2014, 36, Table A1).

17. SNJT, 2014 Annual Report (Tunis), January.

18. Néjiba Hamrouni, SNJT, interview with author, 24/01/2014.

19. Najib Bghouri, SNJT, interview with author, 30/04/2014.

20. Fahim Boukadous, interview with author, 22/01/2014; Mohamed Hamrouni, interview with author, 22/10/2013.

21. Lotfi Hajji, al-Jazeera, interview with author 21/01/2014. In 2008, Ben-Ali set up a journalists' Syndicate as a parallel organization to split member loyalties, play on their fears, and ‘sideline us’, according to Hajji. However, the ploy failed, when independent journalists took over the syndicate, elected Najib Bghouri director, and merged the two bodies, creating the independent organization it is today.

22. Interview Lotfi Hajji, 21/01/2014.

23. Saif Sadrif, Producer Wataniyya 1, interview with author, 19/10/2013, Tunis.

24. Ibid.

25. Ottoway (2003, 166); interview Lotfi Hajji 21/01/2104.

26. Interview Saif Sadri, Wataniyya 1, 19/10/2013.

27. Eve Sabagh, BBC Media Action, interview with author, 22/10/2013.

28. Moncef Cheikhroukou, National Constituent Assembly Representative, interview with author, 02/06/2014.

29. Walid Tlili, National Radio, interview with author, 08/04/2014; Nadia Haddaoui, al-Nawaat, interview with author 30/04/2014.

30. Neji Zairi, programme director, Mosaique FM, interview with author, 20/10/2013.

31. Hichem Snoussi, HAICA, interview with author, 01/05/2014.

32. ‘Pour la HAICA, il y a urgence de nommer les premiers responsables de l'ERTT’ (08/05/2014) http://www.webmanagercenter.com/actualite/societe/2014/05/08/149839/tunisie-medias-pour-la-haica-il-y-a-urgence-de-nommer-les-premiers-responsables-de-l-ertt

33. Fathi Raius, National Radio Service, Radio Kef, interview with author, 30/05/2014.

34. Jamel Delalli, TNN, interview with author, 17/11/2013.

35. Eve Sabagh, BBC Media Action, interview with author, 22/10/2013; for the BBC Action report on media in Iraq, see Awad and Eaton 2013.

36. Hichem Snoussi, interview, 01/05/2014.

37. Fahim Boukadous, CTLP, interview with author, 22/01/2014.

38. Hamza Belloumi, Shems FM, interview with author, 24/10/2013.

39. Amel Mzabi, Syndicate of Tunisian Media Proprietors (STMD), interview with author, 25/04/2014; INRIC, 163.

40. Mohamed Robana, Radio Oxygène, interview with author, 01/05/2014; Rijkers, Freund, and Nucifora (2014).

41. Samy Kallel, BJKA Polling, interview with author, 23/10/2013; Afif Chihaoui, SAPA, Makan Advertising, interview with author, 01/05/2014; Maher Ben Salem, ATA, interview with author 28/04/2014.

42. http://www.karouikaroui.com/en/advertising/; the offerings of Karoui & Karoui advertising, according to the website, and presented in English, include creative services, strategic planning, media planning and buying, brand management and above and below the line operations.

43. http://www.karouikaroui.com/en/presentation.php

44. http://www.karouikaroui.com/en/news.php

45. Maghreb Emergent (2014). http://www.maghrebemergent.com/component/k2/item/33587-nessma-tv-quitte-l-algerie-ses-annonceurs-volatiles-et-ses-verrous-stables.html

46. ‘Tunisia: Ennahda against Jebali's technocrats’ cabinet plan (2013); Oussama Ben Salem, Zeitouna TV, interview with author, 23/01/2013.

47. Mohamed Robana, interview, 01/05/2014.

48. Ngiz Amor, Sabra FM, interview with author, Kerouan, 29/05/2013.