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Pan-African TV channel on course to be launched in 2007
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A round the clock satellite news channel “A24”, modeled on the success of Muslim channel al Jazeera, is on course to be launched in autumn next year. And some media experts are hoping that the new station will give black communities in Britain a real alternative to the BBC and ITN.
News of the pan-African station comes after a survey of black viewers uncovered high levels of dissatisfaction with UK news coverage. |
A recent poll commissioned by the Cultural Diversity Network, a coalition of mainstream broadcasters, found the majority of black people think “ethnic minority issues” are dealt with poorly.
Toyin Agbetu, from media monitoring organization Ligali, said: ‘The rate of progress is far too slow and the political will is not there. We need to break the reliance on Euro-centric media.’ He said that black owned broadcasting was the way forward and welcomed efforts to set up a pan- African TV station for the whole Diaspora.
“A24” will be headed by Nairobi-based journalist, Salim Amin, who is taking forward the vision of the African Union (AU) to have a slick al Jazeera-style channel which is taken seriously across the world. Amin has brought together 65 broadcasting chiefs from across Africa to help set up the station in order to win the “communications battle” with Western media.
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