Supporting Public Service Broadcasting Development in Tunisia: First Year Findings

From the research document: "As part of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Arab Media Partnership project, BBC Media Action works with the national broadcaster Télévision Tunisienne to support its transition to a public service broadcaster....Over a 24-month period, BBC Media Action is working with the public broadcaster to build the country's public service broadcasting capacity. In particular, it focuses on supporting the production of participative programming outputs to a high editorial standard. Programmes will cater for audiences that are currently under-represented, for example marginalised and unemployed youth, women and girls, to enable them to participate fully in the democratic transition.

Through a targeted training and development programme, the project works to ensure that Tunisian TV has capacity to produce programming that a) adheres to public service production values and b) caters for the needs of its national and local audiences. The main project beneficiaries are media practitioners including senior managers, editorial leaders, journalists and programme makers at Tunisian TV and audiences across Tunisia."

Following elections in October 2011 and the formation of a new Tunisian government, BBC Media Action collected data from audience focus groups, practitioner interviews, management interviews, stakeholder interviews, and trainers’ reports. "Gaining the public’s trust is public media’s biggest obstacle in Tunisia." Conversations showed that audiences feel that "the media still has vested interests: 'each channel works for the interest of specific people, the public TV works for the interest of the government and the private channels work for the interest of their owners'...audiences report that the media in Tunisia 'manipulate', 'change', 'hide' and 'exaggerate' the truth. They worry that 'the media is not representing the truth; it changes the information for the interest of some people'."

The BBC Media Action trainers’ situational analysis identified a range of areas for improvement, including leadership and teamwork, as well as role-specific skills. The training programme focuses on professionalisation of media trainees to win audience truth.

[Editor's note: BBC Media Action brought Sa’at Hissab, a topical debate programme broadcast in conjunction with BBC Arabic, to Tunisia as part of this wider training and support programme for journalists, created by BBC Media Action "to strengthen skills and encourage a greater diversity of voices in national debate." This project is ongoing in Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Iraq, and Morocco. Click here to read a blog and see the programme with subtitles.]

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