Today, Wednesday, August 11, 2021, the head of the Press Council, Itidel Majbri, told the JDD Tunisie newspaper that “the Press Council demands an independent investigation regarding the failure of visual media institutions, especially national television, to keep pace with the events of July 25 and 26, 2021.”
Al-Majbri said that “whatever the reason behind this failure is, it is not justified, given that the National Television Corporation is a public utility that the citizen directly contributes to financing, considering also that the failure of private channels from their role in informing the public is contrary to what is contained in the booklet of conditions that stipulate the duty Informing, people’s right to know, and neutrality, which these institutions have not adhered to.”
With regard to self-amendment, Al-Majbri said that “the press council will soon start helping media organizations establish self-modification mechanisms.”
The Press Council had issued a statement on Wednesday, August 11, 2021, in which it demanded that the media institutions “activate the self-amendment mechanisms stipulated in the specifications, according to which they obtained the license from the Independent High Authority for Audiovisual Communication, which is the media conciliator and editorial charters, and in its absence, it will not be able to Journalists from the newsroom management and production in accordance with recognized professional standards”… calling on political actors to stop manipulating media institutions and trying to penetrate them or put pressure on them.
The statement said, “Some media institutions have engaged in political and ideological polarization by limiting themselves to one story and by giving some media outlets the opportunity to carry out propaganda campaigns for the benefit of political actors.”
The Press Council is a private, independent, non-profit body that works to establish self-regulation for the media. It was established in 2020 and consists of 9 members.
The Press Council is responsible for assisting media organizations in establishing mechanisms to respect professional ethics, and to improve legislation related to the written and electronic press sector.
Rifi-JDD
