In an unexpected move on 4 July, the National Authority for Information and Communication Reform (INRIC) held a press conference announcing the end of its activities after disagreements with Tunisian PM Hamdai Jebali’s government.
The media reform body was created after the fall of the 23-year rule of Zeine el-Abidin Ben Ali in order to guarantee the right of Tunisian citizens to a “free, pluralistic, and fair media”.
“INRIC does not want the executive branch to interfere with the media sector in general, and public media in particular, since the latter’s new task is supposed to be scrutinising and questioning the government’s performance. This was a key point of disagreement,” said Hichem Snoussi, a member of the dissolved INRIC and the Tunisian representative of the freedom of expression organisation Article 19.
Only days before the organisation’s announcement, the government-appointed director of the National Radio Institution, Mohamed Meddeb, nominated new directors for eight public radio stations without consulting either INRIC or the journalists’ syndicate. The move is the second of its kind, following the government’s appointment of editors and directors for Tunisia’s press agency, two public TV stations, and a state-owned print and publishing company last January. For the media body, such nominations represent a blow to public media independence.
“The government succeeded in appointing heads of all public media institutions, in light of the non-implementation of the decree law 116, which stipulates that the appointment process is participatory and takes place according to measures set by skilled and competent figures [from the media sector],” Snoussi said.
He also accuses the government of “breaking the law”, by forming an “illegal” committee for granting professional press cards. The government-appointed Ridha Kazdaghli, currently head of the Prime Minister’s Press Unit, as head of the newly formed committee. Chapter 8 of decree law 115 stipulates that this committee shall be independent and presided over by a judge.
During its mission, INRIC drafted three laws: decree 41 guarantees the right to access administrative documents, decree 115 enshrines press, print and publishing freedoms, and decree 116 stipulates that an independent authority for audio-visual communications has to be created. The three laws were adopted by the former interim government under Beji Caid Sebsi. Although decree law 41 was implemented, decrees 115 and 116 remain on paper.
INRIC blames the current government. “The government abused its powers, and broke the law in an authoritarian manner by not implementing these decree-laws which gained the satisfaction of different international freedom of expression organisations like Article 19, the BBC and the Open Society,” Snoussi said.
During a press conference on 6 July, Lotfi Zitoun an advisor to the PM, said that the decision on whether or not to implement decree laws 115 and 116 lies in the hands of the National Constituent Assembly (NCA, elected on 23 October 2011), and not the government.
“There is no doubt that the NCA as an elected institution reflecting the people’s democratic will has the right to examine decrees and valid laws,” Snoussi told Index. “However, the NCA is supposed to amend and support democratic processes, within the framework of these legal texts. Deploying the majority pretext by the NCA as a way to thwart the establishment of a democratic path is a betrayal to the people’s will and the martyrs’ blood.”
INRIC’s mission may have come to an end, but the struggle for press freedom and independent public media is far from over in Tunisia, in the absence of legislation guaranteeing journalists the protection and freedom they need.
