Tuesday, January 28, 2014

BREAKING. euronews to launch a new Afrocentric 24-hour TV news channel, Africanews, as a new sister TV news channel in 2015.


euronews (DStv 414) has announced that the 24-hour European-based English 24-hour TV news channel seen in South Africa on on MultiChoice's DStv, will be launching a new Afrocentric sister news channel named Africanews in 2015.

Africanews will cover African news and the African continent more in-depth and will be headquartered in Brazzaville in the Republic of the Congo. Together with Africanews as a TV channel, there will also be the website www.africanews.com.

Africanews will be run by 40 journalists and technicians based in Brazzaville, as well as correspondents spread across Africa to gather and report Sub-Saharan African news.

Africanews will be financed by advertising and will broadcast in English and French, with plans to include other languages such as Portuguese, Arabic and Swahili later.

Africanews plans to adhere to the same editorial charter as euronews to maintain its editorial integrity and independence. euronews and Africanews will share news.

The agreement was signed on Saturday in Brazzaville between Michael Peters, CEO of euronews, and Jean Obambi, the managing director of Télé Congo.

"Our strategic and highly ambitious project will not be a mere African 'window' made by euronews, as most international news channels do, but rather a fully-fledged Pan-African network, with editorial choices made by Africans for an African audience," says Michael Peters.

The project is backed by US journalist and expert in African affairs, Stephen Smith an American journalist and expert in African affairs and who previously worked for French titles Libération and Le Monde will help in creating Africanews as a new TV news channel.