Media Adviser to the Prime Minister, Mofdi Mssedi, said, Wednesday, July 8, 2021, that “the Commission has fallen and the matter has been resolved,” in reference to the Independent High Authority for Audiovisual Communication.
Mofdi Mssedi published in a post on his personal page, in which he stated, “I say it and go, the authority has fallen and the matter has been resolved.
A government order setting the criteria for attributing compensation, seized by the Fakhfakh government, and implemented by the Mechichi government, is useless! Enough…Enough…and I won’t be silent!”
Yesterday, the authority published a statement warning “against the exploitation of financial aid for the benefit of the media to employ them,” noting that the government assigned financial aid to a number of audiovisual media institutions “without commitment to respect the principles of transparency, integrity and fairness and without adopting pre-defined objective criteria similar to the pioneering experiences in this field,” according to the statement.
The authority expressed its rejection of the government’s handling of the difficult financial situation experienced by many media institutions, a method that recalls the culture of bids and benefits and opens the way for suspicions of employment, manipulation and seeking to control the sector and contradicts the principles of governance in the disposal of public funds that require the utmost transparency and integrity, according to the authority.
In March 2020, former Prime Minister Elias Fakhfakh confirmed his keenness to accompany media institutions to overcome the repercussions of Corona, through a number of decisions. The state guarantees 50% of the broadcast fee for the year 2020 for all private radios and channels, and it also participates in electronic versions of newspapers.
The decisions included the establishment of a fund worth five million dinars to support the efforts of the state in awareness campaigns, as well as allocating a credit of the same value to finance the sector rehabilitation program and support it in engaging in the digital transformation system.
