Euronews to launch a pan-African news channel in 2015

Euronews has unveiled plans to launch what it claims will be the first pan-African rolling news channel, Africanews, based in the Republic of Congo.

The bi-lingual network is slated to go live in summer 2015 in partnership with the national television channel of the Republic of the Congo, Télé Congo.

The channel will launch in French and English, with other languages including Portuguese, Arabic and Swahili, to follow.

It will be headquarted in the Republic of Congo’s capital city Brazzaville, with regional offices to be set up across Africa.

Euronews CEO Michael Peters and Télé Congo managing director Jean Obambi signed a co-operation agreement for the 2015 launch of the channel this week.

Peters says Africanews will adhere to the same charter as Euronews, thus guaranteeing its independence. The two sister-channels will share the content they produce and adapt it to their respective audiences.

“Our strategic and highly ambitious project will not be a mere African ‘window’ made by Euronews, as most international news channels do, but rather a full-fledged pan-African network, with editorial choices made by Africans for an African audience,” Peters added at the signing of the deal.