New Egyptian regional news channel hampered by lack of funds

A correspondent in Egypt

Jun 14, 2022

A picture taken on May 7, 2019, shows billboards advertising "Watch iT," Egypt's first video-streaming app, in Cairo. The video-streaming app was launched this month just in time for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the high season for the television industry, but its debut has been dragged by critics over high prices and technical failures. — KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Images)

The Egyptian state’s plan to launch a regional news channel in the first quarter of 2022 could come to a permanent stop.

In a post on its Facebook page on May 31, Mada Masr newspaper quoted a source at United Media Services, a production company that is said to be owned by the Egyptian General Intelligence, as saying that the work to launch a global regional news channel has been halted because of funding problems.