AL24 News, North Africa’s first international channel
Available on Nilesat, AL24 News is Algeria’s new 24-hour public news channel. Broadcasting internationally since November 1st, it is North Africa’s first international channel.
Based in Algiers, AL24 News comments on national but above all international news through reports, documentaries, talk shows, broadcasts and interviews, including three daily “major events”. News programmes and bulletins are also broadcast hourly with 60% Arabic, 35% French and 5% English content. The long-term strategy is to use three editorial teams (Arabic, English and French) to broadcast across Europe via the Astra and Hotbird satellites. The target audience is already well defined: “above all the French-speaking sub-Saharan region”, says AL24 News president Salim Aggar. “We’re targeting the same audience as France 24.” The channel already has 52 journalists, columnists and presenters and aims to hire 20 correspondents based in Washington, Beijing, Moscow, Cairo and Paris.
Salim Aggar, president of AL24news
Former editor-in-chief of the daily L’Expression, Salim Aggar worked for 30 years in the press and cinema, notably as director of the Centre Algérien de la Cinématographie. He has also directed several short films and documentaries. In 2010, he made “Paroles d’un prisonnier français de l’ALN” (words of a French prisoner of the ALN), based on statements made by a French prisoner-of-war in Algeria. His films have been shown in the Mediterranean Memory category of PriMed.
Chairman since 2002 of a film society “A nous les écrans”, he also created the first Algerian film festival, Journées Cinématographiques d’Alger. As director of the Centre Algérien de la Cinématographie he created the Algerian Cinémathèque to catalogue Algerian and foreign archive material.
Interviewed by 24dhz the former journalist is clear about his ambitions: “We want a media revolution in Algeria’s audiovisual landscape, in the Arab world and in North Africa.”
AL24 News wants to bring Algeria on to the international stage: “We also want to show Algeria’s position on major international and regional issues such as Syria, the Western Sahara, the Arab world, Africa.” A channel “defending Algeria’s broadcasting interests and competing alongside world-renowned news channels.”
For more information on the audiovisual news in Algeria, click here.
Sources: 24hdz.com, lexpression.dz, timesalgerie.com, africultures.com
