Bleu Bazar (“Blue Bazaar”) is the title of a new monthly magazine programme on Mediterranean issues produced by TV5 Monde in collaboration with the European Commission. It is the latest in a long and successful series of programmes made in the framework of the Commission’s EuroMed Regional and Information and Communication Programme managed in Brussels by the Commission’s EuropeAid Cooperation office.
The new magazine features all kinds of delights for viewers on both sides of the Mediterranean, from reports and discussions to music and dining out. All in all, each show will contain a blend of serious and entertaining items in a programme that aims to focus on the full range of relations between Europe and its Mediterranean partners.
The first programme in the new series deals with a crucial Euro-Med issue, that of matter of water in the Mediterranean countries, with reports filmed in a group of countries in the Mediterranean; a discussion on immigration provokes a lively discussion among young people from the north and south of the Mediterranean; and Algerian singer Akli D – discovered and produced by none other than Manu Chao – will perform live on the Bleu Bazar stage
Bleu Bazar, recorded each month in front of a live audience in Marseille, is co-hosted by the Belgian journalist and presenter Paul Germain and Yasmine Chami, a Moroccan anthropologist and TV producer with Morocco’s public broadcasting channel, RTM. Germain describes the show as “a little of everything, including music to attract a young audience,” while one of Chami’s behind-the-scenes roles has been to ensure that the serious topics for discussion are dealt with in a sensitive manner that does not hurt the dignity of those involved.
Some 15 hours of European Commission-sponsored programmes on Europe and the Maghreb are screened on TV5 Monde while subtitled versions (Arabic) of these are repeated on TV5 Orient and offered to over 100 distributors through Canal France International (CFI). The international French station and its eight channels have a total weekly audience of 70 million viewers.
The first programme in the Bleu Bazar series can be seen on TV5 Monde Orient on Monday 12 March at 18.00 (Cairo) with Arabic subtitles and on TV5Monde Europe on Thursday 15 March at 17.00 CET.
