Algeria prepares to liberalise broadcast market
Rebecca Hawkes ©RapidTVNews | 08-09-2011
Algeria’s audiovisual sector is to be opened to private broadcasters with the introduction of a new liberalisation bill to parliament, according to the North African country’s Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia.
“For the first time, we will have legislation dealing with the opening of broadcast media,” Mr Ouyahia is quoted by AFP as telling reporters at the senate’s inaugural session on Sunday (4th September).
He added “there are no freedom restrictions” in Algeria’s draft Information Bill, currently before Parliament.
Algeria's public TV network is the state controlled Enterprise Nationale de Television (ENTV).
Although liberalisation of the sector has long been called for by the opposition, the bill has not yet been made public. The move has therefore received some criticism from media companies which have so far been left out in the cold.
Redouane Boudjemaa, a media expert at the University of Algiers reportedly believes it is too early to assess the development as a provision to liberalise the sector to private broadcasters has theoretically been enshrined in law since 1990.
Enterprise Nationale de Television (ENTV) was the only national TV channel until 1994, when Canal Algérie was launched for French speakers across the country. This has since been joined by Algerie 3 (or Thalitah TV in Arabic) and, in 2009, Tamazight TV - ENTV’s Berber language channel (also known as Algerie 4).
As well as the public network, satellite TV is prevalent across Algeria – with Arab, French and other European channels being popular. BRTV, a Berber station based in France, is also available to Algerian satellite TV viewers.
