Christiane Amanpour
Christiane Amanpour is a prominent British-Iranian journalist best known for her work as a chief international correspondent with CNN. Born on January 12, 1958, in London, she moved to Tehran with her family during her childhood before fleeing Iran during the Iranian Revolution. Amanpour began her journalism career at CNN in 1983, where she gained recognition for her coverage of major global conflicts, including the Gulf War, the Bosnian War, and the Rwandan genocide. She is noted for her ability to secure interviews with influential political figures, such as Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Amanpour hosted a daily interview program on CNN called "Amanpour" starting in 2009, and later took over ABC's "This Week" before returning to her CNN program in 2012. Over the years, she has faced criticism for perceived biased reporting, particularly during the Bosnian War, but defends her approach as a necessary perspective to highlight complex issues. In addition to her journalism work, Amanpour is fluent in English, French, and Farsi, and has been recognized with several awards for her contributions to media. She is married to James Phillip Rubin and has one child.
Christiane Amanpour
Broadcast Journalist
- Born: January 12, 1958
- Place of Birth: London, England
Christiane Amanpour made her name as a correspondent for CNN during the Gulf War (1990–91) and has since covered conflicts in Bosnia, Haiti, Rwanda, and various hot spots throughout the Middle East, including Iran, Iraq, the Palestinian territories, and Afghanistan. In 2009, Amanpour began a daily broadcast on CNN, Amanpour, a half-hour interview program focused on the news and newsmakers. In March 2010, Amanpour accepted an offer from ABC News to host its Sunday morning news program This Week. In 2012, she left This Week to return to hosting Amanpour, this time on CNN International, while continuing to serve as ABC News's global affairs anchor until late 2013.
Background
Christiane Amanpour was born on January 12, 1958, in London, England. Her father, Mohammad Amanpour, was a politically well-connected and wealthy Iranian airline executive; her mother, Patricia, was a British citizen. When Amanpour was a child, her family moved to Tehran, Iran, during the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah, the last shah of Iran. Amanpour left Iran at age eleven to attend boarding school in England, first at Holy Cross Convent and then at New Hall School. Her family fled Iran in 1979, during the Iranian Revolution, and joined her in England.
After secondary school, Amanpour was working odd jobs when she decided to take her sister's place at a London journalism school. Amanpour enjoyed the work and decided to pursue a degree in journalism, enrolling at the University of Rhode Island. She worked for the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) in the summer and earned her journalism degree in 1983, graduating summa cum laude in three years. After a brief stint with an NBC affiliate, Amanpour landed a job in 1983 with the then-fledgling Cable News Network (CNN) as an assistant on the foreign desk.
Career
Amanpour's first major assignment came in 1989, when she was assigned to eastern Europe to report on the changes happening there due to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Her next assignment took her to Iraq, where Saddam Hussein was ordering troops to invade Kuwait. Amanpour covered bombings in Baghdad and the conflict in the north of Iraq among Iraqi Kurds. Amanpour later reported from Sarajevo on the Bosnian War in 1992 and then from Rwanda on the Rwandan genocide in 2004. She subsequently continued to follow world events from their source, reporting from such places as Sri Lanka following the 2004 tsunami and New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
Amanpour has also made a name for herself by securing interviews with some of the world's most famous and controversial political figures, including Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Libyan dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi, and Western leaders such as Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac, among others.
Amanpour has been accused of biased reporting, particularly in her reports from Bosnia in the early 1990s, which many characterized as anti-Serb. While Amanpour does not deny that she was given more freedom than many of her colleagues to report from a more personal perspective, she has argued that objectivity is not being neutral but rather giving both sides of an issue an airing, and that neutrality can sometimes be construed as complicity.
In 2009, Amanpour began a daily program on CNN titled Amanpour, broadcast internationally and consisting of interviews on current world events. The show was discontinued after she was named host of ABC's This Week in March 2010. She left This Week in January 2012 and returned to hosting Amanpour, which had been resurrected on CNN International, in April 2012, though she continued to serve as ABC News's global affairs anchor in what CNN described as a "unique arrangement." In September 2013, production of Amanpour was moved to CNN International's office in London.
Amanpour continued hosting her program on CNN throughout the 2010s and early 2020s. She made national headlines on several occasions, including a 2020 broadcast in which she compared the Trump administration to the Nazis, pledging her support to the administration of President Joe Biden. In 2022, Amanpour cancelled plans for an interview with former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi after he demanded that Amanpour wear a headscarf while filming. In 2023, Amanpour was granted the Hillary Rodham Clinton Award for Courageous Women in Journalism and Peacebuilding.
Personal Life
Amanpour married James Phillip Rubin, former assistant secretary of state for public affairs under President Bill Clinton, in 1998. She is fluent in English, French, and Farsi. She and Rubin have one child, Darius John, born in 2000.
Bibliography
Amanpour, Christiane. Interview by Alison Beard. Harvard Business Review. Harvard Business School, May 2012. Web. 16 Jan. 2015.
"Amanpour to Return to CNN." CNN.com. Cable News Network, 14 Dec. 2011. Web. 16 Jan. 2015.
"Christiane Amanpour, CNN." International Center for Journalists. Intl. Center for Journalists, n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2015.
"Georgetown, Hillary Clinton Honor Journalist Christiane Amanpour and Women Peace Leaders." Georgetown University, 6 Oct. 2023, www.georgetown.edu/news/georgetown-hillary-clinton-honor-journalist-christiane-amanpour-and-women-peace-leaders/. Accessed 3 Oct. 2024.