Christiane Amanpour
Christiane Amanpour is CNN’s chief international correspondent based in London. Amanpour has reported on most crises from the world’s many hotspots, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, Somalia, Rwanda and the Balkans, to name just a few.
Most recently Amanpour covered the death and funeral of pope John Paul II and the election of pope Benedict XVI. Amanpour also covered the first democratic elections in Iraq, which took place in January 2005. In 2004 Amanpour covered the Darfur conflict, traveling to the region twice and secured an exclusive interview with Sudanese President al-Bashir.
Her assignments have ranged from exclusive interviews with numerous world leaders to reporting from the heart of war zones for which she has received wide acclaim, particularly for her extensive coverage of the conflict in the Balkans.
Amanpour’s high profile interviews include exclusives with French President Jacques Chirac prior to the 2003 conflict in Iraq and with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, with whom she also secured the first interview after September 11, 2001. Amanpour interviewed Mahmoud Abbas, the first Palestinian Prime Minister, during a state visit to Washington in 2003, secured the first ever interview with Jordan’s new monarch, King Abdullah, in May 1999 and was the last journalist to interview the King’s father, the long-reigning King Hussein, days before his death. Other interviews include President Musharraf during the war against Afghanistan in 2001, Chairman Arafat and ex-Prime Minister Barak during the heightened Middle East peace negotiations in 2000 and Mikhail Gorbachev in November 1999 for the 10th anniversary of the fall of communism, as well as an exclusive with Hillary Rodham Clinton in May 1999 and with President Khatami in December 1997,
Having spent years on one of the most dangerous assignments journalists have faced in recent history, Amanpour has brought the Bosnian tragedy into context and to the world’s attention. No international network correspondent has reported as continuously from this ethnically torn region. Amanpour subsequently covered the Milosevic war crime trials in The Hague in 2001 and 2002.
For her reporting from the Balkans, Amanpour received a News and Documentary Emmy, two George Foster Peabody Awards, two George Polk Awards, a Courage in Journalism Award, a Worldfest-Houston International Film Festival Gold Award and the Livingston Award for Young Journalists. She also was named 1994 Woman of the Year by the New York Chapter of Women in Cable and Telecommunications, and she helped the network win a duPont Award for its coverage of Bosnia and a Golden CableACE for its Gulf War coverage.
Amanpour has been awarded a number of other prizes, including a further Emmy for her documentary ‘Struggle for Islam’; the 2002 Edward R Murrow Award for Distinguished Achievement in Broadcast Journalism; the Sigma Chi Award (SDX) for her reports from Goma, Zaire; two George Polk Awards for her coverage of Bosnia in 1994 and for her work on the CNN International special Battle for Afghanistan in 1997 to name but a few.
Amanpour’s 1991 Gulf War reporting also received the Breakthrough Award from Women, Men and Media. Her contribution to the 1985 four-week series, Iran: In the Name of God, helped CNN earn its first duPont award.
Her reputation as a world-class correspondent began with her reporting on the dramatic changes occurring in central Europe during 1989 and 1990. During her assignment in the Persian Gulf she covered the Gulf War, from Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 to the U.S. bombing of Baghdad and the Kurdish refugee crisis on the Iran/Iraq border that persisted after the cease-fire. She also covered the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991 and subsequent war in Tbilisi. In December 1992, Amanpour briefly left the former Yugoslavia to report live from the shores of Mogadishu, Somalia, as U.S. troops launched Operation: Restore Hope.
Amanpour began her CNN career in 1983 as an assistant on the network’s international assignment desk in Atlanta. She has since worked in CNN’s New York and Frankfurt bureaux.
Recently, Amanpour was named a Fellow of the Society of Professional Journalists. This honour recognizes significant contributions to journalism.
Before joining CNN, Amanpour worked at WJAR-TV, Providence, R.I., as an electronic graphics designer. From 1981 to 1982, she worked as a reporter, anchor and producer for WBRU-Radio, also in Providence.
Amanpour graduated summa cum laude from the University of Rhode Island with a bachelor of arts in journalism.