Bi-Lingual: AFP launches Urdu service

AFP has teamed up with Pakistan’s private news agency to launch the first international Urdu-language news service.

ISLAMABAD: Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Thursday teamed up with Pakistan’s private news agency to launch the first international Urdu-language news service. The partnership between AFP and the Online International News Network will provide an average of 50 news, feature, sport and business stories per day from AFP’s global output to Urdu clients in India, Pakistan and elsewhere. The co-branded Urdu project, part of a global AFP strategy to develop local language services, was launched in response to positive feedback from a trial with Indian and Pakistani newspapers. “Our Urdu service is an important project for AFP as we want to expand our reach to as wide an audience as possible,’ said AFP’s chief Asia editor, Phil Chetwynd. The agreement was signed at a ceremony in Islamabad.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 4^th, 2011.