Media Cooperation with the Arab World and Iran
IMS works with the Arab world and Iran to enhance the ability of media to serve as a platform for transparency, diversity, pluralism and accountability in the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) region. IMS programmes support media professionalism and opportunities to build social capital and mutual understanding between Arab and Danish media workers.Archive
- EU condemns Syria's restrictions on freedom of expression and killings of journalists
- Attacks on Palestinian journalists doubled in 2011
- Syrian blogger released
- Debate: Documenting a revolution
- Syrian filmmaker arrested en route to Denmark
- Amid uncertainty in Libya, a surge of new media
- Setback for press freedom in Egypt
- Egypt: Capturing history in the making
- Marked change in Egyptian state media
- Moroccan youth take on social media
- IMS joins call to protect freedom of expression in Egypt
- Egypt: Point of no return?
- Journalism in Tunisia still risky, says Sihem Bensedrine
- Freedom of expression under fire in Arab world
- World Press Freedom Day: Watch out for "Big Brother"
- New international initiative in support of Iranian media
- Social media and democracy in closed societies
- Turkey's divisions: Not about religion, but about class and ideology
- Turkey a future central player in Middle East
- Iran – a twitter revolution?
- Turkey and the Middle East – Journalist Conference, Damascus
- Filming in the world’s happiest country
- Tunisia’s only independent radio station fights back
- One woman, one camera in the streets of Beirut
- Opening doors for media in the Arab world and Iran
- Lebanese, Jordanian and Syrian broadcasters find common ground
- Want to work with media in the Arab world?
- Iranian journalists forced into hiding
- Online reporting fills reporting gap in Iran
- Regional programme in Arab world approved for next two years
- Sharing a wealth of experiences
- Vacancy: Student Assistant
- One logo - two discourses
- Beirut Conference November 2007
- Media in the line of fire amid unrest in Beirut
- Fostering professional collaboration
- Elections Handbook, Arabic, 2005
- Conflict Sensitive Journalism, Arabic
- Tunisia's media landscape, June 2002
Tunisia’s only independent radio station fights back
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When Tunisian plainclothes police in January 2009 raided and closed the offices of Tunisia’s only independent, satellite radio station Kalima, some would have expected Editor in Chief, Sihem Bensedrine to give up
Authorities accused Radio Kalima of using illegal frequencies although the station is only available by satellite and online and no law in Tunisia prohibits the use of Internet audio content.
Meeting over skype
Nine months later, however, Radio Kalima is still on air broadcasting by satellite from a temporary location outside Tunisia. A team of seven reporters work from their homes around Tunisia from where they send their reports out of the country to various locations where the material is edited and broadcast by satellite.
- We meet over Skype to discuss content, says Sihem Bensedrine, Editor in Chief of Radio Kalima. She attributes much of the reason why Radio Kalima is still broadcasting to the resilience of reporters determined to get their news across to the Tunisian public.
- Funding support from International Media Support and Open Society Institute has also allowed us to pay our journalists and maintain a stable team. This in turn makes our radio more powerful, more efficient, says Sihem Bensedrine.
Making Radio Kalima work for the people
Kalima was originally established as an independent internet-based news site, but expanded to broadcast via satellite to reach those without computers. More than 80 per cent of Tunisians (population 10 million) own a satellite dish. This proved to be a clever move in light of the subsequent blocking of Kalima’s website by authorities. Some have, however, found ways of circumventing this.
Radio Kalima gives airtime to call-in programs where people in Tunisia can share their views about subjects that affect their every day lives. Topics often debated include: health, water, poverty, corruption and infrastructure. The station runs a daily news bulletin, targeting the younger generation and relies on word of mouth to increase its audience.
The audience of Radio Kalima is based mainly in the capital Tunis, and the North and south west of the country. In some cases, authorities have addressed problems linked to corruption after being reported on Radio Kalima and this has helped raise the credibility of the radio amongst its listeners.
Media conditions in decline in Tunisia
A well-known human rights activist in the Arab world and beyond, Sihem Bensedrine is known to speak her mind about things in her own country. According to her, the media situation in Tunisia is worsening. She explains that there is no independent media and no licenses for print media to operate and continues:
- Just last week the government prepared a push against trade union journalists as part of an effort on their part to control the media in the run-up to the October elections.
For more about Radio Kalima, please visit: http://www.kalimatunisie.com/
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