By Larbi Arbaoui
Morocco World News
Taroudant, September 18, 2012
In a move to strengthen Algeria’s international outreach, Numidia News has launched the testing phase of its international news channel Numidia News TV on the Nilesat satellite.
In anticipation of the official launch of its programing, the channel is broadcasting a medley of programs, interviews and recent speeches by world leaders, which have been collected by reporters of the channel all over the world, including an exclusive interview with Saad Eddin Al Othmani, the Moroccan foreign minister, about Morocco’s reaction to the amateurish film that sparked rage in the Islamic world and its standpoint towards the Syrian crisis.
According to the administration of Numidia News, the channel is led by the same staff of the agency in charge of the website of Numidia News, whereas the office of Numidia News in Washington is responsible for coordinating between offices all over the world.
Numidia News TV can be accessed on the Nilesat satellite at 11602.85MHz, pol.H SR:27500 FEC:3.
In an exclusive statement, Mr. Samer Riad, general manager of the channel, said that the channel crew consists of Algerian journalists who have previously worked in foreign channels and newspapers.
It is worth mentioning that the TV channel has already set up offices in most North African countries except Morocco. But it seems that the channel’s biased political agenda concerning the Sahara issue may block the channel from establishing an office in Rabat.
While Morocco’s neighbor, known for its explicit support to the Polisario separatists, is working hard to build international media corps, Morocco, unfortunately, is still depending on ineffective local TV channels that don’t meet the needs of Moroccans, let alone contribute to building Morocco’s positive image at the international level.
For many years, Moroccan journalists and analysts living overseas have been calling on the Moroccan government to revamp its channels so that they can cope with international standards, thus, reaching a worldwide viewership. These calls have so far fallen on a deaf ears. During his trip to Washington D.C, Mustapha El Khalfi, minister of communication and government spokesperson, said that the government had set out to launch an international channel in four languages. So far his promise has not been materialized, nor was he able to open offices for the three Moroccan channels, Al Oula, 2M and Medi1 TV in major world capitals.
