The European Commission is considering granting up to €5 million a year to news channel Euronews to broadcast in Arabic. EU Communication Commissioner Margot Wallstrom told EUobserver that broadcasting by Euronews in Arabic would be important in “building bridges” to the Muslim world. The Commission currently funds Euronews - a TV channel run by a consortium of public broadcasters providing news in seven languages - to the tune of around €5 million a year.
Adding Arabic to the list of languages – which currently includes English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish – would require an additional annual investment of between €3 and €5 million, Commission officials said. Ms Wallstrom suggested that “alternatively, necessary resources could come from Arabic channels,” explaining that talks on co-operation between Euronews and Lebanese channel LBC had been ongoing until they were interrupted by the recent war in Lebanon.
Read the full story from EUobserver.com
on Aug 31st, 2006 at 15:06
Sounds like “refinancing”. When Euronews launched it did some experiments in Arabic, but the EU wanted it be be financially viable.