Television was shut down for “indecent” scenes

Algeria’s audiovisual police announced on Tuesday that it had decided to “immediately and firmly” shut down a private television station after it aired a program that contained scenes deemed “immoral.”

The Audiovisual Regulatory Authority (ARAV) said in a press release broadcast by the official ABS agency, “It has noted a breach of professional ethics by Channel + Al Ajwa TV +”.

These “violations” are “mainly related to disrespecting the particularities of Algerian society, as well as attacks on public decency by disseminating immoral content and scenes contrary to social values”, added Gendarme of Audiovisual.

According to local media, El Adjwaa TV aired an American film containing “immoral” scenes on Sunday evening. These scenes of a man and a woman in the middle of making love completely naked have been widely commented on on social media.

The private public interest channel, which broadcasts from London, admitted on its Facebook page that it had made “a blatant mistake” and apologized to its viewers and to all Algerians who were “saying goodbye”.

In June 2021, Arau temporarily suspended the private channel El Hayat TV following a lively historical controversy over Emir Abdelkader, a hero of the resistance against colonial France.

In 2012, a law ended a 50-year state monopoly on audiovisual. More than 50 private television channels have appeared, but only six of them, under foreign law, have received temporary permission to open studios in Algeria.