20120310
AFP
Several hundred people, many of them close to Tunisia's dominant Islamist Ennahda party, called for the state television's output to be cleaned up in a demonstration Friday outside its studios.

Protesters, who began the demonstration after Friday prayers, shouted slogans including "We want to clean up the telly!" and "Journalists of shame!" calling for fair and reliable news coverage.

They joined a group of around 50 people who have been camped out outside the Tunis offices of Wataniya Television -- previously known as Canl7 -- who have also been calling for the station to be reformed.

They say that those running the station were close to Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, the dictator ousted in January last year, the first leader toppled by the Arab Spring uprisings.

"The revolution stopped at the doors of this station," Nassef Bennour, a businessman who is part of the protest camp, told AFP.

This station, he said, "does not represent the people and is dominated by the losers of the elections," he added.

Ennahda swept to power after the October 23 election -- the first since the popular uprising that toppled Ben Ali -- and controls key ministries in a coalition government it shares with left-leaning allies.