The newspaper was launched by Hassib Ben Ammar, a leading Tunisian politician and journalist/editor.
[3] Ben Ammar had co-founded the Tunisian Human Rights League in 1976, and he described the newspaper, at its launch, as "a contribution to the dissemination of democratic ideas".
In December 1987, a few weeks after Zine El Abidine Ben Ali took power, Ben Ammar scuttled the newspaper, of which at this time he was the director.
[4] Writing under her pseudonym, Om Ziad (أم زياد), the journalist Naziha Réjiba used the pages of Erraï to warn readers, "Do not be in too much of a hurry to applaud Ben Ali.
[5][6] The article would enrage the newly installed president, who placed a ban on the edition in question and launched a campaign of intimidation against Hassib Ben Ammar who was cornered into putting an end to the newspaper's publication.