Tunisian Media Experience a Chance to Change

I recently conducted an assessment for IREX in the Middle East and North Africa to explore how we might best respond to the rapid changes and diverse needs across the region. Here are some of my thoughts on media and Tunisia after spending some time there. Special thanks to my colleague and mentor, Drusilla Menaker, for her substantial contributions to this piece.

While Tunisia’s revolution continues to have different meanings for different constituencies, perhaps nowhere is the transformation more profoundly felt than in the media sector. After decades of extreme censorship, and in some cases outright brutality directed against journalists and editors, and more recently bloggers, who circumvented the government line, media representatives now feel the fear and intimidation lifting. Indeed, many credit regional media – particularly the citizen journalist reporting that was so prolific in the weeks leading up to the revolution – with catalyzing the widespread riots and protests that ultimately forced the Ben Ali family to flee the country. In the last days of the regime, many Tunisians turned to Facebook as the main real-time regional news source, with the credibility of the stories published there bolstered by video footage and other forms of compelling documentation. Armed with a “rock in one hand, a cell phone in the other,” an outraged citizenry used social media tools to express decades of dissatisfaction with the corruption and belligerence that characterized the Ben Ali regime, inspiring the outer regions of Tunisia –  impotent during 2008 uprisings – to lead the country in demanding fundamental changes in the way Tunisia is governed.

However, with this newfound freedom of expression and information also comes a necessity to exercise it constructively, and in this area much of the Tunisian media sector remains in need of leadership. Tunisia is rife with anxiety based on the lack of trusted information. The state and state-aligned media remain entrenched, accessed by people out of custom (and to see the ads,) not because it is trusted. The online and social media are still the first point of reference for those with digital access, but now there are fears of manipulation and a better understanding of the possibility that undeserved faith can be placed in some digital sources. People question what to believe, at a time when it is so important they have reliable information about the next steps in their nation’s transformation. Tunisians are waiting for new media – not technologically new, but new in approach – to emerge. They want there to be investigations of the past, not just rehashing of who is to blame, and for the media to play its watchdog role in a serious, not speculative, way, and for accusatory and alarmist content to give way to unearthing solid new information.

Can media regroup and take on a role it has never had as the conduit for accurate and balanced journalism, providing probing reporting reflecting the voices of many? At the established media, journalists and editors seem uncertain about how to move forward, but are very clear that new skills are needed. Some of the old guard has transitioned, but there is also concern about whether there is sufficient new leadership, with the right capabilities, to make real changes.  For the new media platforms, there is also a version of the “What next?” question. Will citizen journalists, who have brought breaking news and opinion journalism to the forefront, seek to move into more in-depth, original reporting? The entire regulatory environment also must be reformed, including deciding on how the state-controlled broadcasters and newspapers will be turned into public interest media.

International donor assistance for media sector support is beginning to flow into Tunisia, and appears to be welcome. A coherent approach is necessary, however. Though it is tempting to abandon the established media institutions as relics of past propaganda, they are still part of the Tunisian reality and deserve the opportunity to revitalize and regain their credibility – especially as a significant part of the population is not yet online. The divide between the “old” and the “new” media is one that needs to be eliminated, and assistance could be targeted to creating a continuum between professional and citizen journalist that brings more citizen voices into traditional media and applies the energy and independence of emerging media to more in-depth reporting challenges. As laws and regulations are (re)written to provide a foundation for this new media sector, it is also imperative to institutionalize the separation between the state and the media to ensure free expression extends across all platforms, including the internet. With all that Tunisia brings to this process in terms of literacy, connectivity, and the recognition of the vital role of news and information in the reform process, there is a real opportunity to get democratizing the media sector right.