Prepared by

- The Tunisia League for the Defense of Human Rights
- The Tunisian Association for Democratic Women
- The National Council for Liberties in Tunisia

Financed by

- International Media Support

Introduction

The project partners conducted monitoring of the media for a period during the official campaign period of the legislative and presidential elections between 15 to 22 of October 2004 in Tunisia using international methodological standards of quantitative and qualitative analysis. The project assesses the performance of the media in its coverage during the official campaign period. There is a specific focus on the coverage of the media against normative principles including independence, objectivity and balance. The monitoring was initiated by International Media Support and a small group of international media experts of the Centre for Media Policy and Development worked alongside the local organisations.

Staffing : Abdellatif Fourati - Hafidha Checkir - Kamal Sadou - Khaled Kchir - Larbi Chouikha - Lotfi Hajji - Lotfi Hidouri - Radhia Dridi - Sami Nasr - Samira Bouslama - Sihem Bensedrine - Souhayr Belhassen - Zeyneb Farhat

Methodology

Methodology for content analysis of media coverage

The Media Monitoring Unit observed media coverage of elections in order to assess:
- whether political parties and candidates gained fair access to the media,
- whether political parties and candidates were covered in a unbiased manner,
- whether the media and the authorities abide by the rules and regulations covering their conduct during the campaign - both in terms of national legislation and any international standards, and
- whether it was possible for the public to gather sufficient information via the media to assist them to make a decision on election day.

On 15 October, the Media Unit started monitoring the election campaign on the state owned television stations TV 7 and Chaîne 21. It also monitored seven daily newspapers: the state owned La Presse (English) and Essahafa (Arabic), as well as the privately owned Le Quotidien (French) and Achourouk (Arabic), Le Temps (French) and Assabah (Arabic), Assariah (Arabic). Starting from 18 October, the Media Unit also monitored the main news editions of the state owned Radio Tunis.

Television was categorised into sections: news, free airtime, special programmes on elections, current events programmes and “other” (entertainment, religious programmes , etc.). Besides measuring the time and space allocated to political actors, parties and candidates, the Media Unit also measured the quality of media coverage according to a three level scale (positive, negative and neutral) in order to obtain an indication of the overall tone of the media outlets towards contestants and the different political forces. Articles of newspapers were categorised into the sections: news and information, editorial, letters and opinions, pictures , advertising, “other”. The pages were also classified into the sections: first page, national pages, economy, international affairs, regional affairs, culture and entertainment, sport, special supplement. Positive and negative coverage was recorded only if the monitoring team agreed on judging it to be unequivocal and clear.

Findings and Summary

General Findings

Tunisian media allocated a large amount of coverage to the election process. The information related to the campaign was extensive and regular in all the main national media outlets. Activities of candidates, parties and the election administration were covered throughout the period observed.
In the period observed, the main focus of election coverage was the presidential elections. There was very clearly disproportional time and space allocated among the four presidential candidates. In fact all media devoted overwhelming coverage to the president and its party. President Ben Ali was the protagonist of this campaign, receiving an average of 77% of the time in the broadcast media and an average of 92% of space in the daily press. The tone of the coverage for the President was extremely positive and characterised by an emphasis put on Tunisia development under his leadership.

Members of government were actively involved in the presidential campaign in support of the incumbent president. Almost all ministers received media coverage while attending rallies and meetings at regional and central level to promote Ben Ali’s candidature. Moreover, there was a shift between the government and the president with regards to the activities they were involved in: ministers, who did not run as candidates, constantly campaigned for Ben Ali, while the President formally kept a lower profile in the campaign. In this respect the government used a form of indirect propaganda by systematically announcing decisions and measures aimed at improving the quality of life of citizens.

There was a strong tendency towards personalisation in the presidential campaign: president Ben Ali was identified with the national interest itself and specifically the progress made by Tunisia was always defined as the result to his political decisions. There was also a regular and exclusive association between the President and national symbols such as the Tunisian flag and the Tunisian logo throughout the election period.

The Topics covered by the media reflected the advantage given to the incumbent president: issues such as the development in the economy, education, environment, women’s empowerment, and information technologies were exploited to promote Ben Ali’s candidacy and its political programme. The president was often covered in the frame of his institutional duties that were constantly used as a privileged occasion to campaign and to stress the popular support he enjoys. In this respect the media conducted a parallel and informal campaign under the topic of “The achievements of Tunisia” as they presented a very positive inventory of the former presidential mandate and prefiguring electoral promises for the next mandate.

The parliamentary elections received less attention by the national media. In many cases, MDS and Independent candidates for parliament expressed their open support for Ben Ali’s candidacy rather than explaining their electoral programme. Similarly, RCD candidates focussed more on the promotion of Ben Ali than on communicating their own manifestos. The disproportionate coverage among candidates was less evident in this case although the RCD was still the party that received the largest amount of coverage by all the media. The majority party received an average of 70% of airtime on television and radio news while dailies devoted 74% of their coverage to RCD.

A positive element of this campaign was the absence of hate speech or defamatory language among candidates. This feature was reflected by media coverage that was characterised by a general lack of a negative tone.

The Daily Press

The state owned press clearly favoured the incumbent president and its party who were granted the largest and most positive coverage thus failing to comply with its obligations as a public service. In the period observed, the two state dailies La Presse and Essahafah devoted 75% and 84% respectively of their coverage to RCD.

There was a similar pattern observed in the private press who devoted an average of 69% of space to the ruling forces party. Among the Arab language dailies this trend was repeated as 78% of Achourouk’s and 89% of Assariah’s coverage was devoted to the RCD. The coverage of the French language daily Le Quotidien was also unbalanced and it devoted 80% of coverage to RCD. The two other dailies tried provided more balanced reporting of election news and their content was characterised by slightly different coverage. At the same time the incumbent president and its party continued to be the main object of political reporting: the French language title Le Temps devoted 38% of its overall political coverage to RCD while the Arab language title Essabah devoted 57%.

The quality of the coverage for political parties and candidates was generally neutral or positive with differences emerging between the ruling forces and the other parties running for elections. Positive coverage of RCD in the state press was striking in proportion to overall content (78% of positive space). Members of the government (61% of positive coverage) also received positive coverage while other parties generally received neutral coverage. The private press was characterised by similar coverage, with very positive coverage to the ruling party. In contradistinction the other parties received neutral and sometimes negative coverage.

The incumbent President enjoyed an unequivocal advantage both in the state and private press in the coverage of the presidential elections. This advantage was reflected not only by the space allotted and the quality of his coverage, but also by the position and the formats in which coverage of the President appeared in newspapers. The front page was generally occupied by headlines, articles and pictures referring to the President and his activities. Also, colour was often exploited to catch readers’ attention: they were used for pictures and titles related to news about the ruling party. In comparison with other presidential candidates the space devoted to Ben Ali on the front pages was 97% for the state press and 94% for the private press. A systematic use of the most prominent pages (page 3, central pages and final page) were reserved for coverage of the President. Other candidates did not receive any similar treatment and their coverage was usually confined in less prominent pages and in less appealing formats.

In the state press the ruling party and its candidates, which received an overall 29% of the space, enjoyed less extensive coverage. The private press’ reporting was characterised by limited space devoted to the RCD (10%) and wider space was accorded to opposition parties. However, it must be pointed out that the Parliamentary elections received marginal attention compared to the presidential campaign, which dominated much of the news on candidates for Parliament. Among the opposition parties, those receiving larger coverage with regards to parliamentary elections were MDS (average 18%), PUP (average 18%) and UDU (average 17%). In spite of the more balanced allocation of space observed, the state press reserved more favourable coverage for the RCD. The ruling party received positive coverage for more than half of the space while opposition parties generally were characterised by a neutral reporting.

The Broadcasting Media

All broadcast media monitored (which are state owned), failed to comply with the basic obligations of balance and equitable coverage of parties and candidates. State owned media therefore fell short in guaranteeing the fulfilment of their duty as a public service, in particular with regards to two basic rights protected in the electoral process: the right of voters to be informed about political alternatives and matters of public interest and the right of candidates to put their message across.

A positive measure element of this election was the right of parties to election broadcasts out of charge on state radio and television. Parliamentary candidates could access state radio and television to present their programmes election manifestos using a standard format that was usually broadcast between 14.00 and 15.30. As was the case of the content of the print media, some candidates of the opposition parties often declared their support for Ben Ali in their 5 minutes slots.

As for other types of programming, particularly information based ones, state broadcasters provided an overwhelming advantage to the president and the ruling party in terms of both quantity and quality of coverage.

It was observed that these two television stations regularly broadcast spots illustrating economic and social achievements attained by Tunisia. The spots resorted to slogans that were the same as those used by the President’s party, for example “Women are active partners” was one of the main points of Ben Ali’s programme during the election. These slots also referred explicitly to symbolic references to the President’s party such as the colour mauve framing the images of the spot.

The Moratorium and the Election Day

In spite of this provision, on the eve of the Election Day and during the voting all national media covered President Ben Ali’s appeal to voters to participate in the elections and to take into account the national interest when selecting their candidates. In this speech he also praised the way the electoral process was conducted, thanked opposition parties and applauded Tunisians for their sense of maturity.

Although there is no explicit message that calls for popular support, his speech may raise doubts on the appropriateness of this intervention offering additional coverage and visibility to a candidate that already enjoyed several occasions of access to national media.

More importantly, on voting day two newspapers (Achourouk and Assariah) explicitly called on the electorate to cast their vote for Ben Ali thus infringing the moratorium set out in the Electoral Code.

Recommendations

The Tunisian media law needs to be reviewed in order that the Tunisian public are better served by a plural media sector that acts independently of political affiliations and patronage.

The Government should encourage the broadcasting sector to develop both private and public initiatives in order that television and radio provide an independent range of programmes.

The present election law has failed to ensure adequate coverage of the whole spectrum of political representation. It is crucial that the election law enshrines the principles of access and balance to media outlets for all political parties. In this respect the law needs to be overhauled and modernised to ensure transparency and access for all of the parties and candidates. The law should develop an adequate framework to guarantee coherent and consistent implementation of the legal framework to regulate balanced quality coverage with equal access to the media.

Despite the fact that equal access to the media is important other means and formats should be developed to encourage quality coverage of the elections. To guarantee the public have access to in depth information about the candidates and parties initiatives need to be developed in order to support a greater range of information available accessible to voters.

The publicly funded broadcasters and newspapers should be obliged to serve the public, not political forces. In order to do so they should be guaranteed editorial and financial independence.

Free air time granted to candidates should be made available during prime time where they are most likely to reach the largest part of the audience. This is especially important when the free allocation of airtime is the only opportunity that the candidates have to access the media.

There needs to be a clearer separation between programmes related to the election and other programme formats. Programmes that are not directly related to the election should not be used to promote political parties.

Paid advertisements should be clearly marked and regulated. Financial transparency should be guaranteed both for the funding for the political parties and their campaigns to ensure equity between the contestants.