Al Jazeera's Sarajevo-Based Channel Targets The Balkans

International news broadcaster Al-Jazeera launched its broadcasts in English on November 15, 2006 from Washington. Photo by Al-Jazeera

International news broadcaster Al-Jazeera will cover the whole Balkans from its regional center in Sarajevo, which is likely to go on air in November, Bosnian media reports.

The new program will be called Balkan Al-Jazeera.

Representatives of the TV channel are expected to arrive in Sarajevo next week to wrap up the acquisition of the Bosnian TV channel Studio 99, whose closure looked imminent at the beginning of the year.

The price of the deal stands at EUR 160 000, according to data, provided by the mayor of Sarajevo.

The deal was not officially announced by Al-Jazeera, on whose site there is not a word about it. Representatives of the TV channel have also refused to comment, when approached by Radio Free Europe at the end of March.

Studio 99 went on air in 1992 at the beginning of the war in Bosnia and was well known for its broadcasts, which encouraged tolerance and the development of a multicultural society.

The crisis set in at the end of the 90s, when the international financing, a main source of revenues, was suspended.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!