Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP)
Founded in 1961, Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP) is Tunisia’s official news agency. With a workforce of more than 300 journalists, TAP delivers comprehensive coverage of domestic, regional, and international news. It remains a key player in Tunisia’s information ecosystem, supplying content to both state-owned and private media outlets.
Media assets
News agency: TAP
State Media Matrix Typology
Ownership and governance
TAP operates as a public institution under the direct authority of the Tunisian Presidency. The agency’s Chief Executive Officer is appointed by the Presidency, reflecting the central government’s influence over the agency’s top-level management.
In March 2023, Najeh Missaoui, a seasoned media professional and former head of news programming on Tunisia’s national television channel Wataniya 1, was appointed CEO of TAP.
Source of funding and budget
According to interviews with local media experts conducted in May 2024 and March 2025, TAP’s operational budget relies heavily on public funding. Between 80% and 90% of its income is sourced from the government, with the remainder generated through the commercial sale of editorial content—such as wire news, multimedia materials, and photographs.
Editorial independence
TAP has long been cited—at least until recent years—as an exception in the Arab media landscape for maintaining a measure of editorial autonomy. Historically, the agency operated without explicit editorial directives from the state, a rarity among government-affiliated news services in the region.
However, this independence has been increasingly called into question since President Kais Saied’s invocation of “exceptional measures” in July 2021, which expanded executive powers and weakened institutional checks. Following these developments, TAP was subjected to tighter editorial constraints, prompting journalists from across Tunisia’s state media—including TAP—to launch a coordinated strike in April 2022 protesting government interference in newsroom decisions.
Just ahead of the October 2024 presidential election, TAP was spotlighted for censoring a dispatch about Mondher Zenaïdi—a declared rival of President Kais Saied. The National Union of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT) raised the alarm, noting that the agency’s CEO, Najeh Missaoui, “gave instructions” to suppress reporting on both Zenaïdi and Abir Moussi. President Saied secured a second term on 6 October 2024 with over 90 % of the vote, although turnout remained low (28.8 %) and opposition parties boycotted the election.
As of June 2025, no formal domestic statute or oversight mechanism exists to safeguard or evaluate TAP’s editorial independence. This legal vacuum continues to expose the agency to political pressure, undermining its credibility and the professional autonomy of its staff.
July 2025