No CNN Urdu service in the works

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published: 2 July 2012

CNN’s bureau in Islamabad has denied reports that a CNN Urdu service will launch in Pakistan. It said the claim is purely rumor and not under consideration.

Summary

ISLAMABAD: Despite what is being written about in some so-called online news forums, Google groups and websites, JournalismPakistan.com has confirmed information that no CNN Urdu service is due in Pakistan any time in the near future. The CNN management at the Bureau Office in F-6/1, Islamabad, said CNN had no such plans and that any talk about an Urdu service was, “Rumors and only rumors.” “Launching of CNN Urdu has not come under consideration," the bureau’s management reiterated. CNN has three networks, CNN International, CNN USA and CNN IBN and all of them are in English. Earlier, it had been ‘revealed’ in some of the online-forums and so-called Google groups that the AG Group of Iqbal Ahmed had recently been able to get a license from PEMRA to bring out CNN Urdu from Pakistan. It was said that the major portion of financing for the channel would be borne by controversial property tycoon Malik Riaz who had allegedly teamed up with Iqbal Ahmed as an equity partner for the new venture. A CNN source in Islamabad however, put laid to this rather preposterous assumption. “The first priority of CNN has always been its credibility. Malik Riaz and CNN are poles apart in every way possible. Such a partnership is not conceivable.”