Egyptian national broadcaster to launch news channel

[Analoguesat]

Alarab Online reports that Egypt’s state broadcasting company is preparing to launch a new TV news channel in January. Local press reports say it will replace the previous “Nile el Akbar” channel, but few details have emerged so far. Alarab Online says that the arrival in recent years of pan-Arab satellite networks Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya - which have transformed the region’s broadcasting and the approach to television news - has highlighted the need for an overhaul.

“The new channel intends to be more independent of central power, to convince the public of its professional authority and objectivity” said inside sources cited in local press reports. News bulletins which repeat the same news all day are out. “Even the backdrop and sets will seek to give the impression of change and of a television that is keeping pace with the times,” the sources were quoted as saying. The channel’s new slogan is to be ‘The river of truth.’

(Source: AlArab Online via Media Network)