Tunis — With the introduction of Internet versions of Arabic language dailies "Alchourouk" and "Essahafa" and French language daily "Le Quotidien", the majority of Tunisian dailies are today accessible online.

Two private newspaprers, mass circulation "Alchourouk" and its sister-publication "Le Quotidien" launched today their respective websites (www.alchourouk.com and www.lequotidien-tn.com). Last week, Arabic language daily "Essahafa" started its online version of the newspaper under www.essahafa.info.tn.

Five other dailies are already accessible online. French language "La Presse" considered Tunisia's newspaper of record whose website, www.lapresse.tn, attracts the largest number of visitors among Tunisian papers online. Other newspapers include "Le Renouveau" (www.tunisieinfo.com/LeRenouveau) and "Al Horriya"(www.tunisieinfo.com/alhorria), standard bearers of the Democratic Constitutional Rally.

A number of weeklies can also be consulted online. These include the French-language newspaper "TunisHebdo" (www.tunishebdo.com.tn) and the weekly bi-lingual newsmagazine "Realités (www.realites.com.tn).

Another trend is the publication of newspapers and magazines directly online. The most noteworthy experience up-to-now has been the intellectual magazine www.afkaronline.org managed by a group of Tunisian academics.Online versions of other newspapers published by "Dar Assabah" and "Dar Al Anouar", private media groups will be available soon.

There are today 245 Tunisian newspapers and magazines, compared to 91 in 1987. The overwhelming majority of these publications are privately-owned and editorially-independent.