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From the start, it’s essential to address this question directly to clarify the stance of “Tunisie Numérique”: the platform does not engage in or promote conspiracy theories. Particularly, there’s no belief that the private TV channel M6 acts as a conduit for a clandestine organization within the French Presidency or any other entity aiming to undermine the interests of Tunisia, frequently romantically referred to as the “land of Jasmine.” This point is underlined by the fact that on the same night, M6 aired a controversial program concerning Tunisia, it also broadcasted an explosive program on Saudi Arabia titled “Between Tyranny and Modernity.” We know the relations between Riyadh and Paris, if the French executive controlled the channel he would not have let all this be said about Saudi Arabia. M6 is not the relay for a political ideology like CNews is for the right and the extreme right. M6 aims above all to make money, if necessary with “bad buzz”, which is what happened with Tunisia…
“Exclusive investigation” they dared to say!
There is something to eat and drink in the indigestible soup served by the French chain. Even when it tackles less complex issues such as the gang war in Rio, Mexico or the drug traffickers in Colombia, it shows more insight and sagacity. The copy it produced in Tunisia is mediocre, flies extremely low on the ethical and professional level but above all makes serious omissions and confusions, spans essential parts of the post-Revolution… In short, the “Investigation Exclusive” missed its target to crush the reputation of a country whose exploit in 2010-2011 deserved better than this media treatment fueled by clichés and untruths.
I will begin with a blatant untruth about tourism, which has been portrayed as dying, moribund. Nevertheless, it has not evaded anyone’s notice – at least not the Tunisians – that the sector’s indicators have returned to the 2019 level. M6 may dismiss all of this, after all, it can occur. But in addition to ignorance it does not deign to inquire, to investigate as it claimed to do, the channel adds an unforgivable defect. This is not what Tunisians anticipated from this show which has been on everyone’s lips since it was announced.
Ennahdha whitened like snow, or almost…
Likewise, there is this evocation at least of the movement which clung to the heart of political life until July 25, 2021, the date on which President Kais Saied plugged it in its tracks: Ennahdha. The Muslim Brotherhood’s cronies, arguably the greatest calamity this country has ever known, earned a more violent charge. M6 had nothing to say about the terrorism that they permitted to flourish and about the massive departures of jihadists towards conflict zones, facts that they covered up and even encouraged. The French channel had nothing to say about the mistakes which have strained public finances, ruined the country and led to an unprecedented level of debt.
Did M6 have nothing to offer on this small and big corruption that Rached Ghannouchi and company have permitted to spread to the point of lastingly weighing down an entire economy? Even when Tunisian voters threw the Islamists out the door in 2014 by betting on the late Béji Caied Essebsi, they came back out the window – a historic error by Essebsi – and continued to torture the country they said they loved. Why didn’t M6 say a word about all this? Why did the channel only find “small errors of judgment” in Ennahdha with almost no outcomes and limit itself to filming some of Tunisia’s executioners, including Samir Dilou, in a meeting presented as clandestine because they are persecuted by those in power?
What about the responsibility of Sarkozy and Macron…?
The French channel has the right to deal with the subjects it desires in Tunisia, no one can deny it this right, but if it decides to deal with an issue as complex as the trajectory of the “cradle of the Arab Spring” it must objectively examine all aspects of it. We cannot impose its editorial line on M6, but the stories it tells also belong to people, to nations. It has no right to disguise them, as she disguised the massive departure of young Tunisians towards more lenient skies, by stuffing in pell-mell illegal migrants and the hands and brains who migrate most legally in the world. M6 above all overlooked, knowingly or not, to point out all the responsibilities in this affair, we only saw that of the Tunisian authorities…
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