Tunisian Journalist Seeks To Set Up Arab World’s First Porn Channel

JAFFA, Israel – A Tunisian journalist has applied for a license to operate the first Arab porn and dating channel.

Ashraf Alkaali, a former presenter on Tunisian national TV and an executive of the Arab network ART, said his pioneering enterprise does not contravene Tunisia’s laws, broadcast regulations, or constitution.

Sakina Abdel Samad, the secretary general of the Tunisian Association of Journalists, said they did not receive a request for support from Alkaali, and that it would probably not give it to him anyway.

“The freedom of the media comes with great responsibility,” she said. “This responsibility is not unlimited, though. It is bound by moral norms.”

“We will not support an initiative that defies the norms of Tunisian society,” she continued. “A situation whereby everybody can broadcast whatever they want is unacceptable.”

Tunisian public opinion is still in turmoil over a televised interview with an openly gay man.

He talked about the discrimination and prejudice he says he suffers, and said that his father abused him over his sexual preferences.

The channel, Alhiwar, bowed to pressure and cancelled the broadcast of the second part of the interview, fearing that “the program would spark a backlash against homosexuals that the network would be blamed for.”

Tunisia is one of the most open societies in the Arab world. Until the ouster of President Zen Alabidin Ben Ali, the first uprising in what would later be called the Arab Spring, it was also the most secular. Veiled women were banned from public posts, and employees were not automatically given time off for Friday prayers.

However, the Islamic A-Nahda party won the first democratic elections in the country.

What’s more, Tunisia is the biggest contributor of Islamic State fighters in the Arab world, with no less than 3,000 young men fighting for the radical militia.