After the special series by aidóni and Specto about migration towards and from Tunisia, local journalist Mourad Teyeb shares his views about the consequences of suppressing the work of independent journalism. According to him, extremism and false narratives proliferate when the press cannot do its job. “Fake news multiplied on social media, and hate speech rose to an alarming level.”
By Rogerio Simoes (edited by Méline Laffabry)
Crises demand information, which those in positions of authority tend to control, limit, or even suppress altogether. At the same time, disinformation and mistrust grow, while the public gets lost in a kind of informational fog. This pattern can be seen in Tunisia, a country at the centre of the drama involving immigration from Africa to Europe, according to organisations and individuals closely following the subject.
As the series of stories and podcasts jointly produced by aidóni and Specto comes to a close, Tunisian journalist Mourad Teyeb exposes divisions and uncertainties involving the migration debate in his country. “So far as migration is concerned, Tunisian public opinion is today lost between what they see on the ground and what the media tells them,” he told aidóni.
As previous aidóni’s articles have highlighted, political and civil life in Tunisia changed completely in July 2021, when President Kais Saied put an end to the government of Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and imposed a new, authoritarian regime. This has brought a reality that Mourad Teyebe describes as “the absence of a balanced, reliable, and professional media coverage of the migration question.”
The lack of access to reliable and enlightening information is, according to him, directly related to the restrictions imposed by the government on the work of media professionals. “Free and independent media are not allowed to report, especially when it comes to Tunisia’s migration talks and deals with Italy, the EU and others, and Tunisia’s maritime operations and measures against migrants, from all different departure points.”
From Covid to hostility
In June 2020, Teyebe wrote an article about how the Covid-19 pandemic exposed the difficulties faced by foreigners in Tunisia. Whilst the country was strongly affected by it, migrants went through particularly difficult times – with 53% of those at work losing their jobs. This led the local media to cover more and more their reality – and, according to Teyebe, getting many things right (like “shedding light on the socio-economic factors of the phenomenon”), but failing in some elements of their coverage (some journalists still using dated terminology and concepts). Tunisian media seemed to be learning how to deal with such an important and complex subject.
That exercise, however, stopped with the political changes of 2021. Journalists and their organisations lost their freedom to explore migration stories and issues. The main losers in the new reality, apart from the migrants themselves, seem to be the Tunisian society.
“Tunisian public opinion is today lost between what they see on the ground and what the media tells them,” says Mourad Teyebe. “Fake news multiplied on social media, and hate speech rose to an alarming level.” Much of that involves disputes between migrants and locals, with false reports of foreigners killing police officers mixed up with real stories of confrontation between the two groups, particularly in and around the city of Sfax.
In the conflicting narratives emerging in Tunisia, on one side are the government’s hostility and accusations that African migrants want to change the country’s Arab culture. On the other, assertions that Tunisia’s society has become racist. In this climate, the risk is that extreme views will continue to spread, threatening to dominate public discourse completely.
Unanswered questions
Teyebe questions the notion that Tunisians are racist towards Black Africans. “I think Tunisians have never been racists per se. Tunisians have rarely used the term ‘racist’ in their daily lives, let alone incarnate it.”
The absence of free media, plus the absence of credible surveys and polls and “in the light of the extremely polarised Tunisian political life since the 2011 revolution”, he says, make it “impossible” to tell if Black Tunisians suffer from widespread prejudice. “Most Tunisians have black people among their close friends, relatives, neighbors and colleagues.” Recent reports, though, have indicated that Black Tunisians have been feeling more unsafe and that the government’s discourse has emboldened racists and their behaviour.
The truth about possible racism in Tunisia’s society is just one of many questions that Mourad Teyebe and other journalists would like to see answered, but which remain covered by the blanket of political repression. “Why is Tunisia assuming alone the responsibility of the migrants intercepted in the Mediterranean Sea, despite the regime’s official position that ‘we will never be Europe’s border guard’?”, he asks.
Silencing the press and the organised civil society, Teyebe says, will keep many questions unanswered. In their place, what might emerge is even more extremist views and falsehoods. “As long as the media and NGOs are not allowed to do their job and to contribute to the debate about migration and refugees in Tunisia, the tense atmosphere will persist and hate speech will increase every day.”
This article complements the special series “Tunisia – Land of Passage”, produced by Specto Media and aidóni. Listen to the podcast here.
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