Fascinating Video Shows Formerly State-Run Tunisian Newspaper Reinventing Itself

What do you do when you’ve spent your entire career writing propaganda for fear of being jailed by the government and then, suddenly, one day, that government’s not there? That’s the question being faced by the staff of La Presse de Tunisie, a formerly state-run newspaper in Tunisia. Their struggles to answer this question are captured in a fascinating report put together by Time.

“Our newspaper, for 20 years now, has been disinforming the people rather than informing them,” says the paper’s Director, Hmida Ben Romdhane. However, while La Presse tried to switch directions the instant President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled, such a massive shift is not an easy thing to do. The cameras are rolling as the staff angrily fights over what to do with the paper’s Editor and Chief who was also a loyalist to the former regime.

However, outside of the tension over the new direction, there is also a clear sense of excitement. The video begins and ends with footage of writer Abel Aziz Hali as he happily interviews people on the street, no longer fearing repercussions. Now, he says, he can do his work as a “free journalist.”

Watch the video from Time below:

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