Final report December 2009

Executive Summary

This is the second report submitted by a coalition of NGOs on the Tunisian media performance during the elections. Compared to the 2004 report, we note that the trends in 2009 have been confirmed by emphasizing those in 2004 on two points: the hegemony of the RCD and its candidate on the media space on the one hand, and the marginalization of the democratic opposition on the other hand. This is illustrated by the fraction of space (0.22%) allocated in the print media to Tajdid candidate, Ahmed Brahim.

On other points the trend is declining. The public space is increasingly delivered to the police who became the sole partner, replacing the administration and political actors. Furthermore, we cannot fail to note the emergence of a new actor who is neither a candidate nor institutional; The wife of the president candidate is getting more and more space in the public field, blurring further the institutional game.

This second edition of the monitoring of media coverage of legislative and presidential elections of October 2009 has provided its organizers a real challenge as the intimidations and obstacles were numerous, sometimes escalating to the level of police brutality and physical aggression. The challenge was to produce on time and in spite of these obstacles, a documented report to make proposals for reform in the field of freedom of expression and the right to information.

The challenge has been to broaden the coalition with other partners and take this monitoring work to the feminist University Ilhem Marzouki of ATFD. However, unlike 2004, the monitoring team was unable to complete their training or monitoring in the same premises under police pressure. The Italian expert and trainer Manuela Malchiodi, was, meanwhile, expelled on the third day from Manu military without legal justification.

Last, the electoral moratorium has not been respected. The outgoing president gave a public address October 24, the eve of the poll, which was widely covered by all media. This discourse stigmatized those who "did not respect the sanctity of the homeland or the integrity and pushed the audacity to use false allegations and inciting a desperate campaign with some foreign journalists to challenge the election results even before the counting". Five days later, the journalist Taoufik Ben Brik, who had published critical articles in the foreign press during this campaign, was arrested and sentenced to 6 months in prison after an unfair trial.
Findings

The monitoring team was based in Tunis at the offices of the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women (ATFD). The team used quantitative and qualitative methodological tools which meet international standards for media monitoring.
The quantitative monitoring of media coverage was undertaken over a period of 13 days from the start date of the campaign, October 11, until October 23, the official closing of the campaign.

The observation unit of the media has sought to assess:
- If the political parties have equitable access to media;
- If the activities of political parties and candidates are covered in an unbiased manner;
- If the media and authorities have complied with the rules relating to their conduct during the campaign, both at national and international level;
- If people have sufficient information through the media to formulate an opinion on election day Quantitative analysis revealed:
1. The predominance of the presidential elections campaign, which has received significant
coverage in relation to legislative elections (70.20% against 29.80%).
2. The dominance of the ruling party and the outgoing president who has the lion's share of media (97.14% in print, 75.83% in radio and television), making a visible and undeniable
imbalance and bias that characterized the elections.
3. The low visibility of women candidates for legislative posts who benefited from a small space allocated by media (0.73%).
Qualitative analysis yielded the following:
1. The elections of 2009, the fifth term election since 1987, were shaped by locking policy and the renewal of an authoritarian regime. The latter is based on a constitutional reregisteringthe presidential power in the long term as well as on "special" and transient electoral laws. Promulgated in 1969, the Electoral Code has been amended to "change the rules according to the interests of power." The latter are characterized by increased media censorship and the gap between the electoral law and electoral fact.
2. Journalists working in public and private media have been pressured and faced various forms of harassment, including assault and imprisonment during the election campaign.
3. Despite its plural appearance with more than 250 newspapers, 3 radio stations and 2 private TV channels, the Tunisian media landscape is poor and subject to the will of the administration and the Tunisian Agency for External Communications (ATCE), whose mission is to "coordinate all promotional activities to raise awareness of Tunisia to the outside." In reality, It is dedicated to the control of foreign journalists during their visits to Tunisia. The public news agency Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP) is the only news agency that supplies all the official information media and almost all of them are forced to accept their dispatches.
4. In the absence of transparency and especially the lack of a public regulatory body truly autonomous from political power, the wave of liberalization in Tunisia can be summarized in a new form of subordination to the state.
5. According to candidates and political opponent leaders, further restrictions were exercised during this election campaign against the opposition press during this campaign.
6. The opposition candidates have undergone a systematic censorship in their airtime. The President of the High Council of Communication, Abdelbaki Hermassi, abused his authority and exercised political censorship on the content of candidate speeches, demanding the lifting of all content relating to “general amnesty” or "the mining area of Gafsa" or "the journalists' union,” for example.