1. Early Life and Education
Nabil Karoui was born on August 1, 1963, in Bizerte, Tunisia. His father was a simple working-class man and his mother was a housewife. He started his educational journey at a school run by nuns and he then attended a technical college. He then went to a business institute in Marseille, where he specialized in sales and multinational corporate business.
2. Starting a business with his Brother
Karoui soon joined the multinational corporation canal+ where he served as the North African division’s managing director for two years. Then in 2002, he and his brother formed the public relations firm Karoui and Karoui World. The firm soon opened offices all across the Middle East, including Libya, Algeria, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia.
3. Falling in Line with the Regime
During Ben Ali’s presidency, it was difficult to obtain a license for a news publication or radio station, let alone a TV channel. It is for this reason that when Karoui got into the television industry, he made sure that he would fall in line with the regime’s policies. As such, his own Nessma TV, which first hit the airwaves in 2007, would never broadcast any political shows or news stories and would instead focus on variety shows that would have mass appeal across the Maghreb region.
4. Nessma TV Undermining Status Quo
While Karoui maintained cautiousness during Ben Ali’s tenure, the changes the country was going through at the end of 2010 gave him a window of opportunity to introduce new programming to the channel. Following the death of fruit vendor Mohamed Bouazizi, who immolated himself after police forces confiscated his produce wheelbarrow, in December 2010 mass protests rocked the country as people demanded that President Ben Ali step down. Since then, Nessma TV became more politically bold with its programming when it started airing the protests and programs on the mass protests, something that was unprecedented in Tunisia. Fortunately, it seemed that Nessma was on the right side of history since Ben Ali would resign just a few weeks later; however, that didn’t mean that the channel was immune to controversy. In October 2011, Nessma aired Persepolis, an animated film on the Iranian Revolution; this caused controversy because it had scenes which visually depicted God something which is considered unorthodox in most Islamic doctrine. As such, Islamists started protesting at the channel’s headquarters and some even allegedly attempted to burn it down. While his TV station was sparred, Karoui was fined 2,400 dinars ($1,500) months later for “disturbing public order” and “threatening public morals”.
5. Entrance into Politics
In 2012, Karoui joined Essebsi’s Nidaa Tounes party, but his membership was short-lived as he resigned in 2017 to form his own party in 2017 called Qalb Tounes.
6. Presidential Candidacy and Arrest
Following the death of President Beji Caid Essebsi in July 2019, an early presidential election was called in Tunisia. Karoui soon nominated himself as the candidate of Qalb Tounes. However, in August he was arrested on allegations of money laundering and tax evasion, a move his proponents thought to be politically motivated. Despite his arrest, his name remained in the presidential ballot and he gained enough votes to put him through to the second round. If he manages to win the next round, then he will have the unique experience of becoming a president during imprisonment.
