 After contributing articles to different newspapers and journals, including the London-based Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat, he founded his own weekly Al-Mustakilla ("The Independent") in 1993, the quarterly magazine "The Diplomat" in 1996, Al Mustakillah satellite TV channel in 1999, and a second TV channel, called "Democracy", in 2005.From the early 1980s until his resignation in 1992, Hechmi Hamdi was a member of the Tunisian Islamist Ennahda Movement.Later, he was alleged, but denied, to have developed close ties to President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his party, RCD.