Cha Television will target Jewish audience worldwide

By Khaled Schmitt, IOL Germany Correspondent

BONN, April 25 (IslamOnline.net) - Jewish communities in Europe are undergoing the final preparations for establishing the first Jewish international news channel to be launched from France in October 2003, a German daily reported on April 23.

The French founder of the channel, Michel Silber, signed an agreement with David Rothschild, a Jewish billionaire, to fund the new channel, daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported.

The channel, given the temporary name of "Cha Television", has an annual budget of 30 Million Euro and it will be supported by four satellites to cover the European continent, the Middle East region and North America, it said.

In France, where the channel headquarters will be located, "Cha Television" will be broadcastable through cables and ordinary satellites.

The daily added that "Cha Television" will be broadcasting news bulletins, interviews, talk shows and special reports.

The planned-for channel, in its beginnings, already owns two studios of central broadcasting, the first of which is located in the French capital Paris and the second in occupied Jerusalem, the paper said.

Around 40 Jewish media specialists work in both studios under the leadership of the well known French media figure Daniel Maillot.

Maillot, who is the founder of the "I Television" French news channel, is the editor-in-chief of the "Cha Television", while the chairman of the new channel board is the former head of the French official TV organization Xavier Gouyou.

According to the German daily, the channel has specified certain qualifications that must be met in those to be hired in the new station, such as having an extreme sensitivity toward all what is related to Jews worldwide, professional independency and non-affiliation to any French or European political parties.

The channel, which will broadcast in French and English, will target in addition to the Jewish communities worldwide, non-Jews audience with political interest.