Between 'La Presse' of Yesterday and Today

⚠️ Urgent Information — Flash Radio is following this situation in real time. La Presse celebrates its 90th anniversary. It first appeared in March 1936 (photo below, left). ⏱️ 7 minutes to read The ad that has just been dedicated to it is a monument of pseudo-artistic emptiness (video below, right)! It completely ignores Henri Smadja and his companions, those very people who founded and made the success of La Presse. What is no longer than a shadow of itself, or rather a distant and sad relic, a newspaper that has gone too far into courtiership. Mohamed Sadok Lejri Indeed, no mention is made of this small group that met every day in the cramped space of the editorial office during the 1930s and 1940s. These pioneers put their whole heart and soul into making this daily newspaper appear against all odds, despite meager means and these artisanal mistakes that, between two blank pages and a few unreadable words, charmed the first issues. Unfortunately, their memory does not fit with the cliché of the 'authentic Tunisian' based on melia and ouchem (tattoos) that one insists on plastering in this spot celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Tunisian daily La Presse. A few years ago, in 2019, I went to the National Archives to conduct a historical and sociological investigation on education, health, and food safety. Initially, my task was limited to reviewing a few press articles related to these three themes. Result: I spent three-quarters of the summer, from July to August, immersed in the archives of La Presse, going through every issue since its birth in March 1936 until the 1990s. Going through more than sixty years of history (from 1936 to 1998) was a memorable shock, particularly