The first private Tunisian radio station claims to be targeted by the authorities in place. This does not prevent it from continuing to play its role as a media.
Tunisia. From our correspondent.
With a journalist sentenced to five years in prison, a general manager detained for more than three months, and a presenter and a columnist awaiting a decision on a possible trial for defamation, Mosaïque FM, Tunisia’s leading private radio station with 26 % of the audience in 2022, stay straight in your boots.
Mosaïque FM is committed to respecting the principles of freedom of opinion and expression and the citizen’s right to access to information […]. Strong in the intimate conviction that information remains the prerogative of the citizen Mosaïque FM applies to broadcast it without censorship, indicates the charter of the radio displayed in the entrance hall of the building in the Montplaisir district in the center from Tunis.
Director faces the death penalty
In recent weeks, this charter, the result of joint work by employees, has served as the backbone of our media,” said Boubaker Ben Akacha, editorial director. On May 16, journalist Khalifa Guesmi was sentenced on appeal to five years in prison for refusing to divulge a source. On May 22, Elyes Gharbi and Haytem El Mekki, respectively presenter and columnist of the Midi Show, a flagship political program, were questioned after a complaint from a security union (see Ouest- France of May 22).
On February 13, Nourredine Boutar, managing director and trained journalist, was arrested. He is cited in a case of conspiracy against the state in which political opponents are involved. He was released on May 25, but remains prosecuted and faces the death penalty.
He is a popular boss. His arrest appalled us all. It was a frontal attack against the radio and therefore, the time to make a choice: do we align or not? We decided to continue to do our job , says Elyes Gharbi, presenter of the Midi Show.
“I censor myself sometimes”
In the News department on the 4th floor, Hana Soltani, an employee since the beginning of the radio 20 years ago, is proud that Mosaïque has kept its editorial line: We had to preserve the credibility of our media! Like all journalists, it is difficult to talk to members of the government. But we have the contacts of the directors within the ministries, much more interesting than the ministers. As for fears of closure, she rolls her eyes: As a journalist, we always run after freedom, it’s our whole life regardless of our country.
Upstairs, Haythem El Mekki is more measured. Since the arrest of Nourredine Boutar, the man with the acerbic chronicles of the Midi Show admits having changed his way of working because he knows that he is one of the people in the crosshairs: I sometimes self-censor. My main problem is that I can’t continue to take risks if other people are paying. However, there was no question of stopping the show: It would have been like abandoning Nourredine Boutar. We continued – among other things – for him, so as not to let him go.
