The French language international broadcaster TV5 Monde has fallen victim to a coordinated cyber attack by the Islamic State (IS).
According to Le Monde and other French media outlets, it began at 22.00 CET on Wednesday, April 8 and hit the channel, website and several Twitter and Facebook pages.
Although TV5 Monde seems to have regained control of its Facebook pages, Broadband TV News can confirm that as of 13.00 CET today (April 9) the broadcaster’s site was still down and “under maintenance”.
Commenting on the ability to broadcast, Yves Bigot, the director of TV5 Monde, said that “we have begun to be able to retransmit a programme on a number of areas,” but “our systems have been extremely damaged” by the attack “with incredible power,” and the return to normal “will take hours or even days.”
Paris-based TV5 Monde broadcasts in over 200 countries around the world.
Its general channel offers viewers news, movies, documentaries, magazine and cultural programmes.
Last month it launched a new channel named TV5 Monde Style HD.
