CNN says Anwar didn’t pay to appear on TV programme

(Bernama) — CNN says news stories about the TV network having accepted payment from people on behalf of opposition politician Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to appear on the “Connect the World” programme were clearly fabricated.

A CNN spokesperson said today it was disturbing that no effort was made to contact the network and “independently verify these groundless allegations before they were subsequently reported as fact”.

Over the past few days, a number of people had commented about Anwar’s appearance on the CNN programme.

They had based their comments on an article by Joshua Trevino in The Ledger, a US online publication, which was also quoted by one or two local newspapers here.

Trevino had only alluded to the fact that those who had been hired by Anwar to run his public relations campaign in the United States had solid media contacts.