Tunisia Media Sustainability Index (MSI)

About the MSI

IREX designed the MSI to measure the strength and viability of any country’s media sector. The MSI considers all the factors that contribute to a media system—the quality of journalism, effectiveness of management, the legal environment supporting freedom of the press, and more—to arrive at scores on a scale ranging between 0 and 4. These scores represent the strength of the media sector components and can be analyzed over time to chart progress (or regression) within a country. Additionally, countries or regions may be compared to one another. IREX currently conducts the MSI in 80 countries, and produced the first Middle East and North Africa MSI in 2005.

MSI Overview   | Africa  |  Asia  |  Europe & Eurasia  |  Middle East & North Africa

MSI Methodology

Download the Complete Tunisia MSI Chapter (PDF): 2009 | 2008 | 2006/7 | 2005

MSI Tunisia - 2009 Introduction

Overall Country Score: 0.68

On October 25 President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was re-elected to his fifth term in office by 90 percent of the population in an election decried by media and human-rights organizations. The elections were the first in which officials of other political parties could run for the top office, albeit with strict candidacy requirements. Ben Ali also said the share of opposition seats would increase from 20 to 25 percent. However, the Progressive Democratic Party was blocked from competing in several districts, prompting it to call for a boycott of the elections and the withdrawal of the leading opposition candidate.

Authorities cracked down on the press, radio and television stations, and Internet publishing in the lead-up to the elections, prompting condemnation from several rights groups. Ben Ali warned that the law would be "brought to bear on anyone casting accusations or doubts on the integrity of the electoral process without solid evidence." After the president and his Rassemblement Constitutionel Démocratique¹ (RCD) party swept the elections, he sought to diffuse accusations of electoral improprieties by accusing a "tiny minority" of Tunisians of treason. National and foreign media were harassed, intimidated, imprisoned, abducted, and prohibited from publishing, even as an array of economic and regulatory conditions continue to hamper freedom of expression and the development of an independent media system. The state-run media parroted his take on the elections and sought to discredit critics by accusing them of assisting foreign journalists and outsiders. Observers, including the 20-member Tunisia Monitoring Group, the International Center for Journalists, and the Observatoire pour la Liberté de la Press, l'Édition et la Création² (OLPEC), say the human-rights condition in the country has worsened since the landslide election. 

The mainstream press toes the party line, and authorities regularly block access to alternate news sources. Despite having advanced technological infrastructure, authorities have limited the Internet's emancipatory potential by blocking websites and using an array of legal maneuvers to intimidate and punish online publishers. However, individual news organizations and journalists persist with admirable efforts to circumvent restrictions and take their work online.

Tunisia's plans to apply  to the European Union next year for "advanced partner status," which would boost its international standing and provide trade benefits, is dependent on progress in democracy, rule of law, and justice. Concerned organizations have noted the continuing lack of freedom of expression and media freedom as obstacles to this process. This year's MSI scores reveal that Tunisian media continue to work in an "unsustainable, anti-free-press environment," and that it is worse than last year.

Due to the repressive environment in Tunisia, IREX did not organize a panel discussion within Tunisia. This chapter represents research conducted on the situation and discussions with various professionals knowledgeable about the situation in Tunisia. The names of those contacted will not be published to protect their personal security. This chapter therefore provides a summary of the state of media in Tunisia.

^{1Constitutional Democratic Rally}

^{2Observatory for the Freedom of the Press, Publishing, and Creation}