By coincidence, Lebanon and Tunisia held simultaneous elections on 6 May 2018. A general election, postponed since 2013, was finally taking place in Lebanon while Tunisia held its first local elections following Ben Ali's ouster. We watched the events as they unfolded, one in each country, to compare the role that media and journalism played. There were striking differences on display. Beirut was manifestly in election mood, with posters of prominent politicians everywhere on the city's buildings. Many carried the name of a local institution or businessman who had paid for them in the expectation that the show of support would pay off if the candidate was elected. Ambulating trucks with loudspeakers, music and slogans defied a formal prohibition of campaigning on the night before election day, rallying voters to the ballots. The media was also gearing up and sold its services to candidates at exorbitant prices. Tunis, by contrast, was downbeat. The electoral campaigning did not make big waves. Even though observers referred to the local elections as a milestone of democratic progress, only 35.6 per cent of registered voters took part in them (Wolf 2018). Rules and regulations were enforced, but the two biggest television channels, Nisma and al-Hiwar al-Tunisi, were strongly critical of the media regulator HAICA's instructions for coverage. In fact, they boycotted the entire event as an act of protest. One year later, however, the stage was set for a much more heated election in which the media and journalism actually became a political issue.

The presidency of the republic was the prize and the owner of Nisma, Nabil Karoui, was a frontrunner. The election campaign took a dramatic turn when Karoui was detained on charges of tax evasion and money laundering. A spokeswoman for his party denounced what she described as ‘a political arrest aimed at keeping Karoui out of the presidential race’ (Amara 2019). The arrest had Tunisian journalists highly engaged and divided. As we shall see, both political and professional disagreements came to light. Eventually, Kais Saied won the election. His approach to the media could not have been more different than Karoui’s, because he shunned Tunisia's private television channels during the campaign.