Nabil Karoui

A Tunisian businessman and politician. One of the key figures in the Tunisian media landscape, Karoui is CEO of Karoui & Karoui World and owner of the Tunisian television station Nessma TV. Karoui ran as a candidate in the 2019 Tunisian presidential election, finishing in second place. Karoui began his career in marketing and sales at several multinational corporations. After working sales in Southern France for Colgate-Palmolive, he joined the sales and marketing team at Henkel. While there, he was approached by a recruiter to join the growing North Africa division of Canal+ Group, where he served for two years. In 1996, with his brother Ghazi, he founded his own communications agency KNRG. This was followed in 2002 with the brothers founding Public relations firm Karoui & Karoui World. The firm quickly grew, with offices across the Middle East and North Africa. In parallel with his international public relations work, Karoui expanded his domestic business, creating subsidiaries around audiovisual production, digital media, urban advertising and a record label. In 2009, he became head of the company's television company, Nessma. As a supporter of the Arab Maghreb Union, Karoui wanted to use the television channel to demonstrate the feasibility of a Pan-Maghreb movement by focusing on cultural similarities. This involved a focus on Music of the Maghreb and the broadcast of a local version of Star Academy. On 25 April 2019, equipment from Nessma studios was seized by the Independent High Authority for Audiovisual Communication, who said that the channel had been broadcasting without a license since 2014 and that the seizure was done "after several attempts to find a solution with the channel". On 23 August, the Independent High Authority for Audiovisual Communication and the Independent High Authority for Elections forbade Nessma from covering the 2019 Tunisian presidential election.