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Journalist Profile:
Christiane Amanpour


She was in the courtroom when Saddam Hussein made his first trial appearance in 2005. Time magazine has called her the most influential foreign correspondent since Edward R. Murrow. Meet Christiane Amanpour.

She's the chief international correspondent for the TV news network CNN. This British journalist is said to be the world's highest-paid correspondent. Her knowledge and prominence has given her entry where other reporters are not welcomed to allowed.

An authority on the religion of Islam, Amanpour has a large network Middle Eastern connections. Take a look at this special CNN Report below where she reports on Radical Islam in Britain. Here she interviews Ed Husain, author of a book titled "The Islamist" - a former radical recruiter of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, who left the organization after witnessing a murder.

"I remember once doing a live shot from a so-called famine camp in Ethiopia--and actually in Somalia as well. I was showing a man and telling his story and explaining how ill he was, and it was a live camera. All of a sudden, I realized that he was dying. And I didn't know what to do, I didn't know how to break that moment, how to get the camera away, what to do that would not sully what was happening in real life. And then there's always the crying and the weeping that we hear…children, women, even men. And these images and these sounds are always with me…"

Early Life
Christiane was born on January 12, 1958 in London, England. Christiane's father was an Iranian airline executive and her mother was British. They moved to Tehran, Iraq, soon after Christiane's birth.

Leading a privileged life in Iran and at British boarding schools, she studied journalism initially in London because her sister had backed out of attending and could not obtain a tuition refund. Her family fled Iran during the Islamic Revolution (1979).

Christiane then moved to the United States to study at the University of Rhode Island. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism summa cum laude (the highest distinction of praise). While attending, she became close friends with John F. Kennedy Jr. and was one of his off-campus roommats at one point. They remained close friends until his 1999 death.

The Start of Her Career

As a student, Amanpour was an intern at the Rhode Island NBC affiliate network, WJAR. After her graduation she was rejected by many network because she lacked the "right look". Eventually, she landed a job as an entry-level assistant at CNN's international desk in Atlanta.

"I worked my way up through every level. I was a writer, I was a producer, I was a field producer, I was a reporter and I am a reporter."

She was transferred to Eastern Europe in 1986, during the fall of Communism. Her reporting during this time caught the attention from CNN executives. Her first major assignment as an international correspondent was the Persian Gulf War in 1990, where she received much acclaim for her reporting.

Christiane's Special Reports

"We in the press, by our power, can actually undermine leadership."

Since the Gulf War, Christiane has reported from war zones in Iraq, Israel, Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia and many other places. She also provided coverage for Hurricane Katrina in the United States. After the September 11th attacks of 2001, Christiane was the first international correspondent to interview Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac and Pervez Musharraf.

Some of her exclusive interviews with world leaders include:

• Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, newly elected at the time
• Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
• British Prime Minister Tony Blair
• French President Jacques Chirac
• Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
• Mahmoud Abbas in 2003, the first Palestinian Prime Minister
• Mikhail Gorbachev in 1999, on the 10th anniversary of the fall of Communism
• Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in 2002, in isolation at his Ramallah headquarters (Arafat hung up on her after a shouting match)

Awards and Honours
Christiane's work in journalism has won her these notable awards:

• Harvard's Goldsmith Career Award for Journalism in 2002
• 9 News and Documentary Emmy Awards
• 4 George Foster Peabody Awards for Broadcasting
• 2 George Polk Awards for Journalism

In 1998, the City of Sarajevo named her an honorary citizen for her "personal contribution to spreading the truth" during the Bosnia war from 1992 to 1995.

In 2007, Amanpour was made a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire(CBE), by Queen Elizabeth II for her contribution to the field of journalism. This title is only one step below being knighted.

"I believe that good journalism, good television, can make our world a better place."

References/Images
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