The Cairo Channel (

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: قناة القاهرة), also known as Channel 3 (القناة الثالثة), is one of the six regional channels of the

National Media Authority The National Media Authority (), formerly known as Egyptian State Broadcasting (ESU; ), is the public broadcaster of Egypt, operated by the Egyptian government. It is a member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the Arab States Broadca ...

. The channel existed in the 1960s and was resumed in 1985.

History

The Third Channel was introduced in July 1962 and was, in its first incarnation, a cultural and educational television channel. As of 1967, 40% of its programming consisted of foreign films. The channel broadcast exclusively in Cairo and broadcast on channel 9. The beginning of the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

caused ERTU to close the channel in 1967 due to financial concerns.Present state of ERTU
/ref> Its closure meant that the ERTU had to cut in the acquisition of imports. On October 6, 1985 (coinciding with the anniversary of an Egyptian victory in the Sinai conflict in 1973), the Cairo Channel resumed broadcasting,Mapping Egypt’s Media: State Influence in a Transforming Landscape
/ref> this time on channel 7. The channel catered to Cairo, Kalioubia and Giza and was the first regional television channel opened by ERTU. In its first months, its programming was extremely limited, broadcasting on average for two hours a day, from 6pm to 8pm, with occasional extensions past the period, to air theatre plays on Saturdays (ending at 9pm) and Egyptian movies on Thursdays (ending at 10pm). In 2017, news presenter Azza al-Henawi left the channel. After her suspension, she was caught criticizing Egyptian politicians and sharing content from the

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ('' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar, Imam and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings s ...

. The case was taken to court starting in 2015.Egyptian TV Anchor Faces Misinformation, Insulting Political Figures' Charges on Social Media
/ref> As of 2015, this and the six other channels of the ERTU Al-Mahrousa group were criticized in the Egyptian press for lacking sophistication, having limited presence on social media and having limitations in the studio. One of its programs, however, ''Line and Thread'', a program dedicated to decoration, had amassed 277,000 Facebook followers and 14,000 YouTube subscribers."القاهرة".. تعددت البرامج والديكور "واحد"
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cairo Channel 1985 establishments in Egypt Television stations in Egypt Arabic-language television stations Television channels and stations established in 1960 Television channels and stations disestablished in 1967 Television channels and stations established in 1985 Mass media in Cairo