The Tunisian revolution of 2011 marked a decisive break from the authoritarian order, opening up an unprecedented political, media and social space. With this democratic momentum, civil society expanded considerably, propelled by a thirst for freedom of expression and an affirmed will for citizen participation. This renewal was actively supported by local and international NGOs which invested in the training, support and funding of emergent initiatives, accompanied by the push for a legal framework more conducive to associative activities. Within a few years, the number of associations increased remarkably, growing from 9,600 in 2011 to more than 25,149 in April 2025, according to the Center of Information, Training, Studies and Documentation on Associations (IFEDA). In theory, at least, this evolution reflected a profound and dynamic recomposition of Tunisia’s civil society.
It was in this climate of civic and institutional effervescence that associative media (also called citizen, alternative or civil society media) was born, in varying formats: web TV, web radio and FM radio stations. Web TV stations remain marginal and struggle to find their place on Tunisia’s audiovisual landscape. It is above all web and FM radio stations which have proven to be important media actors, especially in regions with little (or no) coverage by private radio stations.
Two major advancements consolidated the institutional renaissance of associative radio stations. Firstly, Decree-law 2011-116 of November 2, 2011 concerning the freedom of audiovisual communication, which formally recognizes the associative media sector (article 3). Secondly, in 2014, the HAICA’s adoption of specifications defining their legal framework and fixing the conditions for licensing.
These radio structures were also supported by different international actors who offered technical, logistical and financial assistance, in addition to training programs. Some of these actors include UNESCO, the European Union, Oxfam and the International Association of Community Radio Stations (AMARC). Furthermore, being theoretically less subject to the pressure of ratings, advertisers and shareholders (to whom they are not structurally tied as are commercial media), associative radio stations were supposed to enjoy a precious margin of independence.
Over time, these media platforms were vested with a strategic mission (often considered within the logic of instrumentalism), establishing them as key actors—or even the presumed pillars—of Tunisia’s democratic transition. This institutional and symbolic growth also saw the progressive implantation of associative radio stations across the country. Each governorate witnessed the emergence of several such structures. Today, Tunisia claims 36 associative radio stations, 19 of which are FM radio stations (although several of them are currently inactive) and 14 of which are broadcasted exclusively online. They are general or focused on specific themes such as health, youth, human rights or local development. Beyond their function to inform, they were to play an essential role in civic learning, offering citizens a space to participate in media production, enabling them to obtain technical capacities and to become familiar with democratic values and human rights. This educational and humanistic vocation was indeed explicitly set out in the specifications adopted by the HAICA.
The presence of this associative radio network, combined with the network of public and private radio stations, contributed significantly to enriching and densifying Tunisia’s media landscape. It embodied an ambitious promise: a greater diversity of voices, an expansion of the democratic space and a real renewal of public debate. In a regional context often dominated by the concentration of media outlets and restrictions on the freedom of expression, this configuration could even have set Tunisia apart as an unprecedented model of a pluralistic media.
Double fragility
Whereas they may have enjoyed a number of advantages at the outset, associative radio stations today seem to be moving away from their initial vocation, losing the momentum and the symbolic legitimacy that once fueled so much hope. Now, they are facing a deep structural crisis which threatens their existence. Situated at the intersection of two fragile spheres—the associative and media sectors—these radio stations are impacted by the vulnerabilities inherent to both.
In their capacity as associations, they inherit the structural fragility of a civil society whose rapid expansion after 2011 was not accompanied by a sustainable consolidation process. And while Decree-law 2011-88 may have established a relatively liberal legal framework, reality on the ground is marked by much dysfunction: over-dependence on foreign funding, poor public support, and chronic financial instability. A report published in November 2024 by the General Administration of Associations and Political Parties took stock of 481 automatic termination procedures, against a backdrop of stricter monitoring of external funding. While the authorities view these measures as justified in the name of transparency and national sovereignty, associations perceive them as tools for the state to regain control over the sector.
In addition to this financial vulnerability, associative radio stations face structural governance problems: poor professionalization, high turnover, absence of strategic vision, lack of management training. Out of 25,000 registered associations, only a small minority—a few hundred at the most—are truly active and sustainable, highlighting the discrepancy between quantitative expansion and true efficiency.
As media outlets, associative radio stations confront major structural challenges that are common to the global audiovisual sector, such as increasing competition with major online platforms or internal rivalries…exacerbated within the national context. They also suffer significantly from the absence of coherent and structured public policy around the media, which keeps them on the outskirts of official mechanisms and institutional support. Beyond this, the absence of a stable and durable economic model. The advertising market, dominated by a strictly commercial approach and monopolized by several big private groups, drastically limits the access that small structures—and especially associative media outlets—to financial resources.
Furthermore, the National Telecommunications Bureau (ONT), which along with the National Frequency Agency (ANF) monopolizes the management of terrestrial frequencies and programming, imposes particularly high radio-broadcasting prices (sometimes tens of thousands of dinars) which a number of associative radio stations struggle to pay.
And although, in 2015, the HAICA stepped in to negotiate reduced fees (up to 50% for some radio stations located in the country’s interior regions), this measure remains insufficient and unevenly applied. In the meantime, the HAICA itself has been in something of a slump over recent years. This institutional paralysis has thrown a cog in the wheel for associative radio stations, deprived of vital regulatory, financial and symbolic support.
The direct consequences of this double pressure (from the associative and media sectors) weigh heavily upon these structures and upon the individuals who run them on a daily basis. Financial instability means that they operate with limited resources, often dependent upon regular external financing that is primarily provided by NGOs or international funders. This dependence, although it can be an advantage, also detracts from their editorial autonomy and compromises their sustainability in the long-term.
Another major issue is the vulnerability of professionals in the sector. Journalists, presenters, technicians and producers very often work in unstable conditions, with precarious contracts (such as the CIVP), meager salaries and even sometimes purely volunteer-basis work. The only associative radio stations to resist this instability are those which benefit from the support of large international NGOs and/or those which have managed to develop complementary sources of income, in particular through renting out their spaces or studios, organizing trainings or obtaining advertising inserts. Others, particularly those operating in the country’s interior regions, gradually become extinguished—media phantoms limited to a purely symbolic presence, without significant programming or a real local presence. This process is similar to what happened to many commercial media structures which appeared in the effervescent post-revolutionary climate where only those with solid financial resources survived.
Identity crisis and social disconnect
All of these constraints—financial, human, structural—ultimately contributed to a major discrepancy between the ambitions which founded associative radio stations and their actual operation. Owing to a lack of means, but also because of administrative and fiscal barriers which render their closure difficult and costly, a number of them continue to exist as bare bone structures, for the sole purpose of not legally disappearing. Behind the label “associative radio station,” we therefore often find a structure that is on borrowed time, propped up by few isolated volunteers, without an editorial agenda, strategic guidance or sustainable support.
The result is poor, disjointed programming. A number of stations diffuse a constant flow of music without any particular theme, contextualization or editorial coherence, to which is added sporadic programs without a fixed time slot or interaction with the audience. This disaffection with listeners is also manifest in how information is treated; in many cases, these stations simply regurgitate news broadcasts diffused by mainstream, public or commercial media outlets, without offering original local content.
This disconnect entails the abandonment of the fundamental principles upon which associative radio was founded: local news coverage, social inclusion, citizen participation. The danger is not only in their possible technical disappearance, but in their symbolic erosion. In losing their democratic substance, these outlets reveal the impasse encountered in a model of transition which multiplied the number of structures without ensuring their viability. In sum, associative radio stations have become the mirror of an unfulfilled democratic promise, in which the formal creation of spaces was not followed by real political and structural support.
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