TUNIS, Tunisia — Tunisia’s media regulator has recently shut down a number of media outlets, stirring a wide controversy on the future of the press in the country. The private Tunisian Hannibal TV announced Oct. 31 in a statement on its Facebook page that it decided to automatically and temporarily suspend broadcasting until its legal situation is settled and it obtains a broadcasting license.

The channel explained that its move comes in response to the decision of the Independent High Authority for Audiovisual Communication (HAICA) instructing it to immediately halt broadcasting or face legal measures. HAICA had issued in September a decision to stop the licensing and legal situation regularization procedures of the channel.

Hannibal channel’s move comes days after private Nessma channel, based in the city of Rades in the southern suburbs of the Tunisian capital, confirmed in a statement on its website that on Oct. 27 HAICA, escorted by the security forces, seized its broadcasting equipment under the pretext of operating without a license. HAICA had previously warned Nessma channel several times since 2015, slapping it with warnings and financial penalties.

In October 2018, HAICA warned the management of Nessma TV that it was violating the law by broadcasting without legal permission and failing to complete the procedures for regularizing its legal status. A 2011 Tunisian law mandated that all broadcasting institutions in the country must be run as joint-stock companies and Nessma was run as a private limited company.