Al Jazeera appoints new MD for English news channel

The Al Jazeera Network today announced that it has appointed Tony Burman as the new Managing Director for the Al Jazeera English channel.

He replaces Nigel Parsons who will assume the position of Managing Director of Business Acquisition & Development.

The appointment of Mr. Burman comes as the relatively new channel embarks on the next stage of its development with expansion of programming, bureaus, audience reach and investigative journalism.

Until recently, he was Editor in Chief and Executive Director of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC News) and has been an award-winning news and documentary producer with field experience in more than 30 countries and several continents including the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Latin America. Mr. Burman, while head of CBC’s news and current affairs operations, the largest news organization in Canada, implemented the successful integration of CBC�۪s radio, TV and online operations.

Wadah Khanfar, the Director General of the Al Jazeera Network stated, “Al Jazeera welcomes Tony in his new role and we look forward to his contribution in building on Al Jazeera’s success as one of the world�۪s most influential broadcast news brands. The current change is designed to enrich the core of Al Jazeera�۪s mission ��� its journalism of depth, its commitment to providing a diversity of viewpoints, its dedication to giving ���a voice to the voiceless” and ensuring that the human story is at the centre of the news agenda.”

Tony Burman, commenting upon his appointment stated, “I am proud to be assuming this role and I look forward to building on my predecessor Mr. Parsons achievements. Al Jazeera�۪s newsrooms are the most diverse in the world, drawing on journalists, broadcast executives, production personnel and support staff from more than 50 countries and I look forward to capitalizing on this strength through increased investment in investigative journalism, more provocative and insightful current affairs and expansion of the Network’s large worldwide network of more than 60 news bureaus. In the months ahead, I will also put an emphasis on the expansion of Al Jazeera�۪s vast audience reach into important new areas of the world, most notably North America.”

The English channel was launched in November 2006 and is now available to more than 100 million households worldwide. It is availble on the Sky Digital platform in the UK.