Cover of L'Action Tunisienne (May 4, 1933), with the headline story reporting on the Naturalized Tunisian issue.
|
|
Type | Daily newspaper |
---|---|
Format | Broadsheet |
Founder(s) | |
Founded | 1 November 1932 |
Ceased publication | 19 March 1988 |
Country | Tunisia |
L'Action Tunisienne (sometimes abbreviated to L'Action) is a former Tunisian Francophone newspaper founded by Habib Bourguiba and published from November 1, 1932 to March 19, 1988. Working for the Destour party, at first, it later became part of the Neo-Destour then the Socialist Destourian Party, since its foundation on March 2, 1934, in Ksar Hellal.
It gathered nationalist activist like Béchir M'hedhbi, co-founder of the journal and its first editor in chief, Mahmoud El Materi, Bahri Guiga, M'hamed Bourguiba, Ali Bouhajeb and Tahar Sfar.
Becoming a daily newspaper, it pursued its publishing after Tunisia's independence in 1956. Its last edition was published on March 19, 1988. It was replaced the following morning by Le Renouveau newspaper.
In the early 1930s, Habib and M'hamed Bourguiba, El Materi, Guiga and Sfar, started writing articles in La Voix du Tunisien, a newspaper owned by Chedly Khairallah, a member of the Destour. Soon, they stood out from their elders of the party thanks to their originality and the way they express the problems and issues related to the Tunisian people. Their new reasoning charmed public opinion as they were in favor of the inviolability of national identity and political sovereignty of the Tunisian people. Furthemore, they advocated for a gradual emancipation of the country while supporting a nationalism that fought against a regime and not against a civilization.
They quickly attracted the interest of public opinion but also French preponderants, large landowners and businessmen, who had a great influence on the colonial administration. Thus, they obtained from the French Residence firm measures to end tbe freedom of expression of the five journalists: On May 12, 1931, many nationalist newspapers were censored, including La Voix du Tunisien while the Bourguibas, Guiga, Salah Farhat and El Materi were prosecuted. Nevertheless, they obtained from their friends in Paris, Marius Moutet and Gaston Bergery, the postponing of their hearings to June 9, 1931. Awaiting trial, the journalists expressed their dissatisfaction in a protest campaign.