Christiane Amanpour
Christiane Amanpour is CNN's chief international correspondent. Working in most of the world's hot spots of the 1990s, her most recent assignments have sent her to Iran, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Haiti, Algeria and Rwanda. Amanpour's assignments have ranged from an exclusive interview with Iranian President Khatami to covering the civil unrest and political crisis in Rwanda. She has received wide acclaim for her extensive reports on the conflict in the former Yugoslavia.
Amanpour exclusively interviewed Mikhail Gorbachev in November 1999 for the 10th anniversary of the fall of communism. She also interviewed 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. She also secured an exclusive interview with Hillary Rodham Clinton in May 1999 as well as an exclusive interview 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 U.S. network correspondent has reported as continuously from this ethnically torn region.
For her reporting from the former Yugoslavia, Amanpour has received a News and Documentary Emmy, two George Foster Peabody Awards, a George Polk Award, 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 prizes, including 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; and the Nymphe d'Honneur at the Monte Carlo Television Festival in 1997.
Amanpour's 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 also has worked in CNN's New York and Frankfurt bureaux. She is also a contributor to CBS News' 60 Minutes Ð the first reporter ever to broker this kind of dual assignment.
Recently, Amanpour was named a Fellow of the Society of Professional Journalists. This honour recognises 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.
