Assabah

Assabah is a daily in Arabic founded in 1951 by Habib Cheikhrouhou. It is published by Dar Assabah. During the Ben Ali regime, Dar Assabah suffered from the Ben Ali policy and that of the Tunisian External Communication Agency (ATCE). After Sakhr El Materi, son-in-law of Ben Ali, bought a majority of shares of Dar Assabah in 2009, the newspaper published articles in support of Ben Ali. Sakhr El Materi’s shares were confiscated after the revolution.

Key facts

Audience Share

Missing Data

Ownership Type

private (confiscated)

Geographic Coverage

National

Content Type

paid content (800 milim)

Passive Transparency

upon request, ownership data is easily available from the company/channel

3 ♥

Media Companies / Groups

Dar Assabah

Ownership

Company

Tunisian State (Confiscated property)

79%

Individual Owner

Raouf Cheikh Rouhou

20%

Media Companies / Groups

Dar Assabah

Facts

General Information

Founding Year

1951

Founder

Habib Cheikhrouhou

Affiliated Interests Founder

Cheikhrouhou Habib was born in 1914 in Sfax. In 1951 he founded Assabah, a daily in Arabic, followed by Le Temps in 1997, a daily in French and finally Assabah Al Ousboui, a weekly in Arabic, in 1985. When died in 1994, the publishing house Dar Assabah remained in the hands of his family.

Ceo

Abderrahmen Khochtali

Affiliated Interests Ceo

Abderrahmane Khochtali, born July 5, 1964 in Redeyef, Gafsa is a civil servant and since 2014 CEO of Dar Assabah. He was appointed by the Head of Government - a decision that was disputed by Raouf Cheïkhrouhou (shareholder and son of the founder) as he esteems that the Head of Government does not have the right to decide about the nomination of the CEO. He holds a Masters in Accounting (IHEC, 1998), a Diploma of the National School of Administration (ENA) with a specialization in public accounting (1992) and a Diploma of the Public Accounting Institute (Paris, 1991). He was Comptroller General of Finance, Secretary General of Tunisair, responsible for the performance based budgeting unit of the Ministry of Finance and Chief of Tunisian Customs.