Abbas Nasir, former head of the BBC’s Urdu ervice, has been appointed executive editor for the BBC World Service’s Asia and the Pacific Region, the largest of the five regions within the group.
“With the proliferation of the BBC’s output in different media, making sure that the BBC speaks with one voice and lives up to its famous editorial guidelines in all languages is a daunting task,” said Nasir. “But it is also an imperative if the BBC is to hold its leading position in terms of authority, balance and trust.”
The Pakistani-born journalist will oversee language services on radio and three 24-hour online language sites (bbcurdu.com, bbchindi.com and bbcchinese.com) as well as an English site for South Asia.
He started his career in Pakistan with the daily Dawn. He moved to the daily Muslim and later to the monthly Herald and was the chief political correspondent with the Karachi-based The News when he was asked to join the BBC’s Urdu service in 1994.
He later became head of the Urdu service and launched its website, bbcurdu.com.
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