The Hindu Business Line : Al Jazeera English in talks with Indian broadcasters

New Delhi, Aug. 9 Al Jazeera English, the Doha-headquartered television channel, is in talks with news and regional broadcasters in India as it waits for its uplinking licence from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

It is also looking at launching Hindi, Urdu and Turkish channels and is exploring possible Indian partners for the first two ventures.

The channel’s Managing Director, Mr Tony Burman, in the Capital for a conference, is optimistic of receiving permission soon after a series of positive meetings with Government officials. “We believe the Ministry of External Affairs has given its recommendation for our licence. We have been ready to go, and as soon as we have our licence, we will start talking to distributors. We are doing whatever it takes and are also in talks with other Indian broadcasters for partnerships,” said Mr Burman.

The channel plans to expand its reporting staff strength in India once the channel is launched.

Al Jazeera English is a separate channel from Al Jazeera Arabic, but it suffers from its association with the latter, which has been the channel of choice for Al-Qaeda in the past. “We have staff from 35 countries and I am a Canadian myself. It’s absurd to believe that we have a Middle-Eastern bias,” said Mr Burman, who was Editor-in-Chief at Canadian Broadcasting Centre earlier.

The “baggage” has been a challenge for the channel, which has been trying to break into the North American geography. Mr Burman, however, is hoping a change in political environment will help them correct “erroneous prototypes”.

With 70 worldwide bureaus, more than what CNN or BBC have, points out Mr Burman, Al Jazeera is truly more global and takes pride in its in-depth coverage of “places like Africa”.

The channel is distributed in 100 countries and reaches 120 million households.

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Al Jazeera English hopes to go on air in India soon

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