The Political Transition in Tunisia from the Point of View of Regulation of Communication Media

The Arab Spring has represented a very complex process of change in different countries, all of them with diverse political cultures and historical backgrounds. Thus, although it has been defined and "labeled" as a regional political movement, each country in the MENA region should basically be analyzed separately. Of course, this does not preclude that many lessons can be learnt from different transition processes (if they actually take place) and therefore some experiences can be useful for others. The case of Tunisia is particularly interesting in this sense. For several reasons (most of which have been pointed out in this text), Tunisia should be considered a leading country in the democratization of North Africa, including in the media sector. While countries like Egypt have also started a process of "liberalization" of the media sector (including the audiovisual sphere), in Tunisia this process has been undertaken by an adequate institutional system that has been able to enact a seminal and systematic legislative regime. The Tunisian case is in many ways unique, as far as it is the result of a political will to establish a pluralistic and proportionate regulatory system. This regime has to be enforced, in the case of the audiovisual sector, by a newly designed independent regulatory authority.