March 9th, 2011

CNN Blog Bolsters Conversation in the Global Public Square

New International Affairs Blog Expands FAREED ZAKARIA GPS Coverage

CNN.com has launched Global Public Square, a new blog in partnership with Time.com featuring global news distilled into compelling and enlightening points of view from Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN’s FAREED ZAKARIA GPS and Editor at Large for TIME.   Other expert guests and journalists from CNN and TIME magazine will contribute to the blog as well.

“I can’t imagine anyone better than Fareed Zakaria to be at the center of this intelligent discussion on foreign affairs,” said Meredith Artley, vice president and managing editor of CNN.com.  “The inter-connected world we live in is a subject that resonates with our audience.”

Edited by CNN.com’s new World producer Amar Bakshi, the Global Public Square blog will use CNN’s global resources to help interpret and explain the world.  Users can also participate in the conversation by asking questions of newsmakers, commenting on the posts and giving their opinions on international events and the diverse, original perspectives that are presented.

“I’m thrilled to announce the launch of the Global Public Square blog, there you will find smart, fun, surprising posts that will change your view of the world and inform you,” said Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN’s FAREED ZAKARIA GPS.  “It’s a place where you and I together can make sense of the dazzling events unfolding around us every day.”

Over the next few weeks, the Global Public Square blog will feature Zakaria’s perspective on America’s economic competitiveness, opinions  from guests such as Foursquare co-founders Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai, statistics guru Hans Rosling and Nina Hachigian, co-author of “The Next American Century.”  CNN’s Nic Robertson will provide analysis on Libya’s tipping point, and CNN Cairo Bureau chief Ben Wedeman will report on the ongoing unrest in the Middle East and North Africa.

Other features will include a weekly news quiz, books of the week and guest blogs from a variety of interesting and unexpected voices.

Fareed Zakaria hosts Fareed Zakaria GPS for CNN Worldwide, is editor-at-large and a columnist for TIME magazine, and a columnist for The Washington Post.  Zakaria has been heralded as one of the world’s leading journalists, authors and preeminent foreign affairs analysts and has been named to various lists, including Foreign Policy magazine’s list of “Top 100 Global Thinkers,” and Newsweek magazine’s “Power 50” list of the most influential political figures of 2010.  In 1999, Esquire magazine named Zakaria as “one of the 21 most important people of the 21st Century.”

The international and domestic affairs program FAREED ZAKARIA GPS airs Sundays at 10:00a.m. and 1:00p.m. ET on CNN/U.S. and at 8:00a.m. and 4:00p.m. ET on CNN International. Additionally, users can follow the show on Twitter at @FareedGPSCNN.

CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships within both television and the digital media.

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For more information, visit www.CNNPressroom.com and follow @CNNpr on Twitter.