Radio Tunisienne (officially known as Établissement de la radio tunisienne) is the public radio broadcaster in Tunisia. It runs five nationwide channels and a network of regional channels. In January 2024, the government announced that the journalists of the radio station Shems FM would be integrated in the Radio Tunisienne team. The decision followed the confiscation of the Shems FM station by the government.
Media assets
National: Radio Tunis, Radio Tunisie Culture, Radio Jeunes, Radio Panorama, RTCI;
Regional: Sfax, Monastir, Gafsa, Tataouine, Le Kef
State Media Matrix Typology: State-Controlled (SC)
Ownership and governance
Radio Tunisienne was established in the same manner as the ETT, has the same statute (a public institution wholly owned by the government) as ETT, and is subordinated to the same body as ETT, the Presidency of the Government, which also appoints the broadcaster’s executive board. Tunisia’s media regulator, HAICA must approve the appointment of the station’s CEO, as it does for ETT.
Source of funding and budget
The majority of the funding in Radio Tunisienne’s budget comes from the government. The station also sells advertising, but that accounts for only a small part of the broadcaster’s budget, according to local experts and journalists consulted for this report in May 2024.
Editorial independence
Radio Tunisienne used to be a government propaganda channel, but during the past decade, a process aimed at reforming the radio broadcaster has been rolled out, with a positive impact. For several years, no evidence of editorial control by the government has been found.
Nonetheless, following President Saied’s introduction of a set of “exceptional measures,” Radio Tunisienne has come under the government’s strict editorial control in a similar manner as ETT. As in the case of ETT, Saied dismissed the CEO of the Tunisian public radio twice since he launched his “measures.”
Radio Tunisienne has followed an editorial charter in its work that, among other things, helped guarantee the broadcaster’s editorial independence. Yet since President Saied introduced a set of exceptional measures aimed at controlling the media in Tunisia, this charter has not been implemented anymore.
During the latest round of research, no oversight or assessment mechanism that would validate Radio Tunisienne’s editorial independence was identified.
July 2024