CNNI ‘Eye On Kazakhstan’ Special Caught In Sponsorship Snafu

By Alex Weprin 

CNN International is taking some heat from The Atlantic after the magazine noted that a recent program focusing on Kazakhstan was sponsored by Kazakhstan itself. The show presented the Central Asian country in a very positive light, and featured interviews with government and business leaders there, without a real acknowledgement that the country was sponsoring the program.

If that sounds familiar, it might be because CNBC Europe faced a very similar predicament last year with its “World Business” program. CNBC ended up canceling “World Business” after the uproar.

From The Atlantic:

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Browsing the Eyes On page and watching the clips myself, I could find no indication of who was sponsoring the program or even that it had sponsors at all, other than the vague note about “sponsorship [often] originating from the countries we profile,” which doesn’t clarify if that means the country’s government or just companies that happen to work within that country…

CNN’s spokesperson said that Sadvakasov “no longer works with the Kazakh government,” but didn’t dispute that he recently had or that Karymsakov still does. When asked who had arranged the interviews and if CNN was aware that their sources had such close ties to the regime, she replied, “Both interviews were arranged by the CNN International editorial team in the context that each guest is an expert in their respective field.” They’re certainly experts, but their association seems relevant as well. Imagine if CNN had interviewed Peter Orszag, the 2009-2010 director of President Obama’s Office of Management and Budget, as merely an “economist” asked to evaluate Obama’s economic policies; or if it had presented an executive at Ford Motor as an unbiased “auto expert” who might give comment on Ford’s comeback.

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