Christiane Amanpour

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Christiane Amanpour
Born January 12, 1958 (1958-01-12) (age 50)
Birth place London, England
Education University of Rhode Island
Circumstances
Occupation CNN chief international correspondent
Spouse James Rubin
Notable credit(s)

Christiane Amanpour, CBE, (born January 12, 1958) (listen  Persian: کریستین امان‌پور) is the chief international correspondent for CNN.

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[edit] Early life

Shortly after her birth in London, her father Mohammad, an Iranian airline executive, and her British mother Patricia, moved the family to Tehran. The Amanpours led a privileged life under the government of the Shah of Iran.[citation needed] At age 11, she returned to England to attend first the Holy Cross Convent School in Buckinghamshire, England, and then the New Hall School, an exclusive Roman Catholic girls' school. Her family fled Iran after the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

Amanpour moved to the United States to study journalism at the University of Rhode Island. During her time at U.R.I. she worked in the News Department at WBRU-FM Providence. One of her college housemates was John F. Kennedy, Jr, who was attending Brown University; they remained close friends until his death in 1999. Amanpour graduated from URI Summa Cum Laude, with a B.A. in journalism, in 1983.[1]

[edit] Career

After graduation in 1983, she worked for NBC affiliate WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island as an electronic graphics designer.[2] In 1983, she was hired by CNN. In 1989, she was posted to Frankfurt, Germany, where she reported on the democratic revolutions sweeping Eastern Europe at the time.

It was her coverage of the Persian Gulf War that followed Iraq's occupation of Kuwait in 1990 that made her famous, while also taking the network to a new level of news coverage. Thereafter, she reported from the Bosnian war and many other conflict zones. Her emotional delivery from Sarajevo during the Siege of Sarajevo led some viewers and critics to question her professional objectivity, claiming that many of her reports were unjustified and in favour towards the Bosnians, to which she replied, "There are some situations one simply cannot be neutral about, because when you are neutral you are an accomplice. Objectivity doesn't mean treating all sides equally. It means giving each side a hearing."[3] From 1996-2005, she contracted with CBS to file four to five in-depth, international news reports a year as a special contributor on that network's newsmagazine program, 60 Minutes. These reports garnered a Peabody Award in 1998, adding to the Peabody she was awarded in 1993.

Based out of CNN's London bureau, Amanpour is one of the most recognized international correspondents on American television, with a willingness to work in dangerous conflict zones. She speaks English, Farsi, and French fluently.

She has had many memorable moments in her career, one of them being a telephone interview with Yasser Arafat during the siege on his compound in March 2002, during which Chairman Arafat hung up on her.[4] Another was landing the first and only post-election interview of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by a Western journalist in 2005, despite some trepidation that this strident disciple of the now deceased Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini would raise the issue of the Amanpour family's ties to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was deposed by a revolution led by Khomeini with Ahmadinejad's active involvement. The interview proved this concern to be unwarranted.

She interviewed North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator Kim Kye Gwan on February 26, 2008 after the New York Philharmonic visit to North Korea.[5]

In 2007, Amanpour had a walk-on role on the U.S. television series Gilmore Girls.[citation needed]

[edit] Personal life

In 1998 Christiane married James Rubin who at the time was an Assistant Secretary of State and spokesman for the U.S. State Department. A son, Darius John Rubin, was born in 2000. The family resides in New York City. While Amanpour's father is a Muslim, Christiane herself is part of Iran's Christian minority, and reports no problems from the Muslim majority.[6]

Amanpour's sister, Lizzy Amanpour, is a producer for British television Channel 4.

[edit] Awards and recognition

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] See also

[edit] External links