Morocco TV will soon have a new channel that will entirely be “Amazigh.” Finalizing of the program specifications is being done to ensure that the national channel will be able to begin operations soon. Communications Minister, Khalid Naciri, noted that the channel will air a range of general interest programs. Such a channel has been a long awaited demand of a great many Moroccan citizens.
The Moroccan government will pay for the creation of the Amazigh televison channel which will cost approximately 168 million dirhams. Finance and Communications Ministries will foot the bill. National Radio and Television Company will provide most of the staff and the channel’s headquarters. Royal Institute for Amazigh Culture will produce some of the programming and training.
Financial difficulties in November 2006 caused plans for the station to be shelved, but now the government is determined to get the Amazigh channel on the air. A committee made up of the National Radio and Television Company, Royal Institute for Amazigh and the Ministry of Communication all had a part in the project before it was turned over to the government.
Programs will be broadcast in the dialects of Amazigh: Tamazight, Tarifit and Tachlhit. Needs of a great number of Moroccans will be addressed by this channel in the fields of information, education, culture, and leisure according to Mr. Naciri. Another aspect is to bring Amazigh to an audience unfamiliar with the language.
A rep of the Amazigh Citizenship Network, Brahim Baouche, remarked that all Amazighs are eagerly awaiting the new channel. Integration of the Amazigh into the public media will come to fruitation. It is a kind of reconciliation with the Amazigh to promote Moroccan cultural diversity.
The two national channels have attempted to broadcast programming in Amazigh, those shows were during off-peak viewing hours. Creation of a special channel devoted to the Amazigh language and culture has a lot of interest from those within the Amazigh movement. Groups that do not support the Royal Institute for Amazigh Culture are even welcoming this endeavor.
Spokesman for the Popular Movement, Said Ameskane, said that the channel will meet the needs of people who do not speak Arabic. He is concerned that this new channel will cause a separation and it would have been more beneficial to broadcast Amazigh programs on existing channels. He says that Moroccans are all part of one society and no one is 100% Arab or Amazigh. Morocco is a cultural mix of both.
by Carole Morris
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