Ennahda calls on HAICA to review closure of radio and TV channels

Tunisia’s Ennahda party yesterday called on the Independent High Authority of Audiovisual Communication (HAICA) to review a decision to shut down several radio and TV stations, the Anadolu Agency reported.

In a statement, the party said it “reaffirms its support for freedoms, particularly the freedom of the media as is a prime gain of the revolution guaranteed by the constitution.”

Ennahda demanded the authority “reverse its decision and to perform its task according to the law and without contradicting the constitution and the people’s right to free media”.

The statement came following HIACA’s decision to shut down several radio and TV stations and threats to confiscate their broadcasting equipment if they did not comply with the decision.

According to HAICA, the concerned media channels were “broadcasting illegally”.

In its statement, Ennahda called on HAICA “to engage in dialogue in order to overcome their differences taking into account the media channels’ and audience’s interest”.

On Thursday HAICA granted the Zitouna channel, an affiliate of the Ennahda party, five days to shut down or it would confiscate its broadcasting equipment. On 2 September the authority released a list of radio and TV channels which received broadcasting licenses and called on enterprises that were not granted the licenses to suspend their broadcast. The owners of the media channels were given an additional period to shut down their operations on 3 October.