Country Report Tunisia
The Economist Intelligence Unit, May 2013, Pages: 24
The body that will regulate Tunisian radio and television has been appointed.
The creation of the High Independent Authority for Audiovisual Communication (HAICA) on May 3rd, World Press Freedom Day, demonstrates a new readiness on the government's part to compromise to fulfil its promises and rebuild its popularity. However, the creation of HAICA was a long time in coming. Tunisia's parliament had passed a law to establish an independent body to oversee the radio and television sectors back in November 2011. As with other reforms, the process has been held up by a combination of administrative inefficiency and political disagreements, in this case between the government and local interest groups.
HAICA's job is to regulate the broadcast media sector, a tough job as since the revolution lots of unlicensed radio and television stations have sprung up. It will appoint the heads of public radio and television stations and protect broadcasters from government interference; the previous regime kept broadcasters under tight control. However, independence from government might be questioned given that the five government representatives have a majority on the nine-member body. Nevertheless, its creation is a welcome step towards the reform of media regulation and has been welcomed by journalists' unions and local and international press-freedom bodies. These bodies now want the government to implement another law passed in late 2011 to set up a similar body to oversee the press, guarantee press freedom and protect journalists and their sources.
Country Report Tunisia
Broadcasting regulator is appointed
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