CNN Abu Dhabi goes live with premiere of daily news show

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CNN Abu Dhabi is the organisation's newest major bureau outside the US to join London, Mexico City and Hong Kong. Prism, an evening prime time show was broadcast for the first time on Tuesday night. It will broadcast live from the capital Sunday through Thursday and all regional coverage will be headquartered there.

The commercial value of being based in the UAE is something the network has been tapping into for years, teaming up with Dubai-based Media International Services. Airing shows with more locally inspired content will likely attract further advertising interest from local companies.

"The region in itself is growing as a whole and I think as time goes by, as technology and internet penetration become more readily available, business will grow across the board," said Rani R. Raad, senior-vice president of CNN International advertising sales.

‘Cultural Voyage'

Raad, however, rejected as "inaccurate" any suggestion that commercial activities were the sole impetus for choosing Abu Dhabi.

The city's location means the bureau can act as an effective support for those stationed around the region, said Tom Fenton, CNN's managing editor for the Middle East.

"If you draw a circle around Abu Dhabi and say: ‘What is within two to three hours' flying time of the Emirates or Dubai airport?' You cover many of the world's major news hotspots, and that is very much part of our reasoning for being here," he said.

"When a bureau like Kabul, for example, needs help logistically, needs technical support, in the past they would have gone as far away as Hong Kong or London. Now it'll just be a couple of hours away from Abu Dhabi."

From 2003 to 2006 Fenton was CNN's bureau chief in occupied Jerusalem, and he stressed that the network's presence in the region is nothing new.

"We've been here since 1983. We opened our bureaus in Cairo and [occupied] Jerusalem," he said.

Centring around Abu Dhabi is likely to become a growing trend, said Tony Maddox, executive vice-president and managing director of CNN International. Before joining CNN International in 1998, he worked for the BBC and made a comparison with coverage in the past, when most international news organisations had a bureau in Frankfurt.

Despite the challenges local media can face in terms of censorship, Maddox said CNN would always maintain its standards.

"We operate in places where the free press is effectively banned," he said. "We operate from some very restrictive regimes, and the UAE is not one of those. I don't say there are not challenges for local journalists."

The welcome CNN International has had from the authorities in the UAE is testament to the respect their freedom of speech will be given, said Maddox.

"In fairness we're not new on the block. People know what CNN has to offer — they know the kind of journalism we want to do, so when people welcome us on board I think they know what they're going to get."

"We will operate here like we operate any of our bureaus and operations," added Fenton. "Wherever we are we will never bring our standards down."

He is confident CNN International will stand up to competition from BBC World and Al Jazeera in the region.

"Competition is a good thing, and this is coming from someone who has been with CNN long enough to remember when we were the only kids on the block," said Fenton. "We welcome competition."

"We've always been better at breaking news. People tend to switch to CNN when they see a breaking story."

However, he added, what they have been working to increase in recent years is more coverage behind the headlines, putting news in context with in-depth coverage.

By Jane Ferguson, Business Features Writer

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