Christiane Amanpour

Born 1958

London, England

War correspondent who first came to public attention during the Persian Gulf War

"I remember I wanted to have a reason to be in the middle of things, with all the movers and shakers. I wanted to be a foreign correspondent."

Christiane Amanpour in People magazine.

As the London-based chief international correspondent for CNN, Christiane Amanpour is one of the best-known and most-respected journalists in the world. She first came to public attention during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, when she reported on all aspects of the conflict from inside Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Amanpour went on to even greater fame after the war, largely on the strength of her award-winning coverage of the ethnic strife in the former Yugoslavian republic of Bosnia.

Chooses a career in journalism

Christiane Amanpour was born in London, England, in 1958. She was the eldest daughter of Mohamed Amanpour, an Iranian airline executive, and his wife Patricia, a British citizen. The Amanpour family moved to Tehran, the capital of the Middle Eastern nation of Iran, when Christiane was a baby. She enjoyed a privileged upbringing in which she learned to speak Farsi (the main language spoken in the non-Arab nation of Iran), French, and English. Even as a child, Amanpour showed hints of the fearless nature that later helped make her reputation as a war correspondent. "When I was five, I clambered onto a table to retrieve a balloon that had gotten stuck on the ceiling and pulled the entire chandelier down," she recalled in Vogue magazine.

At the age of eleven Amanpour was sent away to Holy Cross Convent School in England. She was homesick and miserable throughout her five years at the school. At sixteen she transferred to New Hall, the oldest girls' Catholic school in England. She dreamed of someday becoming a surgeon, but eventually realized that her grades were not good enough to get into medical school. She decided to pursue a career in journalism by chance. One of her sisters had been accepted to a London journalism school but changed her mind about attending. When the school refused to reimburse the tuition, Amanpour talked the admissions department into letting her attend in her sister's place.

Around this time, Iran underwent a revolution that forced Amanpour's family to leave Tehran. For many years Iran had been controlled by Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the shah of Iran. The shah had been installed as the country's ruler by Western nations (the noncommunist countries of Western Europe and North America) following World War II (1939–45). Though the shah received support from Western governments, his government was unpopular in Iran. In 1979 it was overthrown by a group of Islamic fundamentalists (a movement stressing strict following of the basic principles of Islam) led by a Shiite Muslim religious leader named Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Khomeini established a new government based on strict Islamic principles and tried to eliminate all Western influence from the country.

Amanpour's family settled safely in London, but it was a difficult time because they lost all of their property and most of their money. Still, the experience reinforced Amanpour's determination to become a journalist and cover conflicts around the world. "My father lost everything. We had to start over," she told People magazine. "But I remember I wanted to have a reason to be in the middle of things, with all the movers and shakers. I wanted to be a foreign correspondent." In 1980 Amanpour's grandmother paid the tuition for her to attend the University of Rhode Island. She graduated with honors in 1983 with a bachelor's degree in journalism.

Becomes a reporter for CNN

Upon graduation Amanpour took a job with the Cable News Network (CNN), a relatively new television network that was dedicated to providing continuous twenty-four-hour news coverage. At that time, few people thought that the concept of twenty-four-hour news would succeed or believed that CNN could compete with the major TV networks. But Amanpour viewed the new network as a great opportunity to get a start in journalism.

Though she arrived at CNN's headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, with only a bicycle and a few dollars, she soon impressed everyone with her hard work and ambition. Amanpour's duties were limited to answering phones, running errands, and typing scripts as she learned the news business. She even came into the office on weekends to practice writing scripts. In 1984 she paid her own way to the Democratic National Convention in exchange for a CNN press pass. Since the network was shorthanded, they ended up using her to cover the convention.

By 1986 Amanpour was promoted to producer-correspondent in CNN's New York bureau. In 1989 communist governments began falling from power in several countries in Eastern Europe. (Communism is a system of government where the nation's leaders are selected by a single political party that controls all aspects of society. Private ownership of property is eliminated and government directs all economic production. The goods produced and accumulated wealth are, in theory, shared relatively equally by all. All religious practices are banned.) Eager to cover such a major international news story, Amanpour accepted a position at CNN's offices in Frankfort, Germany. Immediately after she arrived the people of Romania launched a revolution to overthrow the country's longtime dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Amanpour went to Bucharest, Romania, to cover the fall of the government and the effects of the revolution.

Makes a name for herself covering the Persian Gulf War

In August 1990 the Middle Eastern nation of Iraq invaded its smaller neighbor, Kuwait. Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (see entry) argued that Iraq had a historical claim to Kuwait's territory. He also wanted to control Kuwait's oil reserves and to gain access to Kuwait's port on the Persian Gulf. Countries around the world condemned the invasion and demanded that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein immediately withdraw his troops from Kuwait. Many of these countries then began sending military forces to the Persian Gulf region as part of a U.S.-led coalition against Iraq. The United States sent more than four hundred thousand troops to the Persian Gulf over the next six months.

By this time Amanpour had demonstrated such a talent for reporting international conflicts that CNN agreed to send her to the Persian Gulf. She covered the invasion of Kuwait and the coalition military buildup in Saudi Arabia. She earned praise for her courage as well as her remarkable ability to deliver unscripted live reports of the action. In fact, she and her all-woman crew became known as the "three holy newsbabes."

In November 1990 the United Nations Security Council established a deadline of January 15, 1991, for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait or face war. When Hussein failed to meet the deadline, the U.S.-led coalition launched a series of air strikes against military targets in Iraq. The air war went on for nearly six weeks and caused major damage to Iraq's military capability. Amanpour went to Baghdad to report on coalition bombing of the Iraqi capital.

On February 24 the coalition launched a dramatic ground assault to push the Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. Amanpour was there to cover the advance of American ground forces, which succeeded in liberating Kuwait from Iraqi occupation after only four days of fighting. After the war ended, Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq rose up against Hussein's government. Amanpour remained in Iraq to report on this rebellion, which was soon crushed by the Iraqi military. Hundreds of thousands of Kurds fled from the country to refugee camps in Turkey, and Amanpour also covered the Kurdish refugee crisis.

Wins awards for reporting the conflict in Bosnia

Amanpour's impressive coverage of the Persian Gulf War made her a household name among television news viewers around the world. In 1991 she used her clout to convince CNN to cover a rapidly escalating conflict between Serbs and Muslims in Bosnia, a republic of the former Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was once made up of six republics—Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Slovenia, and Montenegro. The people of Yugoslavia came from many different ethnic groups, and their strong feelings of ethnic loyalty led to many internal conflicts over the years. Yugoslavia began to come apart in 1991, when Slovenia declared its independence and the other republics followed in turn.

Arthur Kent: The Persian Gulf War's "Scud Stud"

Journalist Arthur Kent was born in 1954 in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. The son of a newspaper editor, he began working as a reporter for the Calgary Herald in 1972. He soon switched to broadcast journalism, however, and worked his way through college as a reporter for CJOH-TV in Ottawa. Upon graduating in 1976, he became the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's youngest news correspondent.

During the mid-1980s Kent spent several years covering the war in Afghanistan that pitted Afghan rebel groups against troops from the Soviet Union. Kent's coverage of this conflict came to the attention of Tom Brokaw, the anchor of NBC News in the United States. Brokaw arranged for Kent to be offered a job as a correspondent for NBC in 1988. Over the next two years Kent won Emmy Awards for his coverage of the overthrow of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in Romania and of the student protests in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China.

In January 1991 NBC sent Kent to Saudi Arabia to cover the Persian Gulf War. He was based in Dhahran, a city on the Persian Gulf that contained a major U.S. military base. Iraq fired a total of eighty-six Soviet-built Scud missiles during the war, forty-six at Saudi Arabia and the rest at Israel. Although many of the Scuds were intercepted by U.S. Patriot defense missiles, one hit a U.S. Army Reserve camp in Dhahran, killing twenty-eight American soldiers and wounding eighty more.

Kent reported on the Scud attacks against Saudi Arabia from the roof of the Dhahran International Hotel. His clean-cut good looks, perfect hair, dashing leather bomber jacket, and courageous reporting captivated millions of female television viewers around the world. He became an overnight sensation, and was known by the nickname "Scud Stud."

Throughout his seven weeks in Saudi Arabia, Kent received hundreds of faxes, letters, and packages from his admirers. His fan mail included poetry and marriage proposals. He was surprised and a little bit concerned about his sudden rise to stardom. "Two years ago I was a tramp on the fringes of NBC," Kent told Maria Wilhelm in People. "Now here I am, with 40 people backing me up, the subject of quite extraordinary and undue attention.... I'll pay for it down the line. Even within our own happy little community, there will be a backlash."

When the war ended, NBC tried to take advantage of Kent's popularity. He spent a week as a substitute cohost of the Today Show, but viewers and critics found him disappointingly dull in the role. The network then tried him out as a correspondent for its Dateline news magazine, but Kent clashed with the show's producers because he wanted to cover hard news stories. "They're doing lousy, sensational programs," he told Marjorie Rosen in People.

In August 1992 Kent was fired by NBC. The network said that his large ego made him impossible to work with. But Kent claimed that the problems stemmed from his demands to cover tough foreign assignments. He sued NBC for wrongful dismissal, and two years later he received an apology and large financial settlement from the network.

Kent was hired by CNN as a correspondent in 1996, but he lasted less than a year before being fired again. He then took some time off to write a book, Risk and Redemption: Surviving the Network News Wars. In addition to an autobiographical account of his own rocky career, the book provides a critical look at the declining standards of TV news.

In 1998 Kent returned to Iraq to produce the award-winning documentary A Wedding in Basra for PBS. In 2001 he went back to Afghanistan to produce another PBS documentary, Afghanistan: Captives of the Warlords, that also won several awards. The leather jacket he made famous during the Persian Gulf War later became part of an exhibit at the Newseum media museum near Washington, D.C.

Sources: "Arthur Kent." Newsmakers 1997. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group, 2003; "Heroes of the War: Arthur Kent." People, Summer 1991; Kobel, Peter. "Whatever Happened to Arthur Kent?" Entertainment Weekly, January 23, 1998; Rosen, Marjorie. "Kent's State—He's Gone." People, September 7, 1992; Wilhelm, Maria. "With Fan Clubs Lifting Off Like Patriot Missiles, NBC's Arthur of Arabia Is the New Rising Star in the Gulf." People, February 18, 1991.

Bosnia became the site of terrible violence during this time. Ethnic Serbs, with the support of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, began a systematic campaign of arrests, torture, and murder to eliminate the Muslims who formed the ethnic majority in Bosnia. Serb troops forced Muslims from their land and destroyed their property. The campaign to eliminate the Muslims from Bosnia became known as "ethnic cleansing."

Amanpour's instincts told her that this conflict would be her generation's war. She convinced CNN to cover it before the American media showed much interest. "Other correspondents before me had World War II or Vietnam," she explained in People. "Well, this is my Vietnam." Many people credit Amanpour's passion for bringing the Bosnian crisis to the world's attention. She argued that a country that was recognized by the United Nations was being destroyed by its neighbors in violation of international law. She felt that the world community should be made aware of the situation and take action to stop it. Over the next several years Amanpour became strongly identified with the Bosnian conflict.

Amanpour faced significant danger during her time in Bosnia. In fact, she often gave reports while wearing a helmet and flak jacket, which is similar to a bulletproof vest. In 1992 her camera operator, Margaret Moth, was shot in the face by a Serbian sniper. Moth survived, but she required extensive surgery to rebuild her jaw. "What happened to Margaret made me realize how vulnerable we all are," Amanpour told People. "But it never made me have second thoughts about doing my job."

Another time, Amanpour was covering the war from Sarajevo when her hotel was bombed. "I heard this awful whistling noise," she recalled in People. "It was a howitzer mortar shell, apparently mis-aimed. It landed in a room two doors down from mine—but it didn't explode. Otherwise, it would have been over for me." Despite the danger, Amanpour turned down several offers of network anchor positions in order to remain on the front lines of the conflict.

Amanpour was occasionally criticized for showing bias in her coverage of the Bosnian conflict. Believing that her coverage favored the Muslims, Serb forces sometimes spit on her or made threatening motions as if they were cutting her throat. Amanpour rejected the idea that she showed favoritism in her coverage, and said that she only reported what she saw. At the same time, however, she admitted in the New York Times that "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." Amanpour earned more than a dozen prestigious awards for her work in Bosnia, including an Emmy Award in the News and Documentary category, a George Foster Peabody Award, a George Polk Memorial Award, and a Courage in Journalism Award.

Named CNN's chief international correspondent

By the mid-1990s Amanpour was widely viewed as one of the most prominent war correspondents of her generation. Her reputation for fearlessly reporting from the world's hot spots led to the slogan "Where there's war, there's Amanpour." She also was known for her husky, exotic voice and precise manner of speaking in a British accent. Over the years, Amanpour gained so much power that she no longer received assignments, but instead made her own decisions about what to cover. In addition to her work in Bosnia, Amanpour reported on conflicts in Somalia, Haiti, Rwanda, and Afghanistan.

Amanpour's reputation helped her get exclusive interviews with a number of world leaders over the years. She was the last journalist to interview King Hussein of Jordan before his death in 1999, for example, and the first to interview the country's new ruler, King Abdullah. She also interviewed former Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev that year, on the tenth anniversary of the fall of communism. In 2002 she interviewed Yasir Arafat (see entry), leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, while his headquarters was being blockaded by the Israeli army.

Amanpour was pursued by all the major television networks when her contract with CNN expired in 1994. She chose to remain with CNN and became the network's chief international correspondent. In 1996 she signed an unprecedented deal in which CNN maintained first rights to her services for breaking news stories, but she also was allowed to contribute five or six reports a year to the CBS news program "60 Minutes." The deal made her one of the highest paid people in the TV news business.

In 1998 Amanpour married James Rubin, who worked as a U.S. State Department spokesman and was a close advisor to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. In 2000 she gave birth to a son, Darius John Rubin. Although she was determined to continue her career after starting a family, she did begin taking greater precautions to ensure her safety.

Where to Learn More

"Anchors and Reporters: Christiane Amanpour." CNN.com. Available online at http://edition.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/amanpour.christiane.html (accessed March 23, 2004).

Arias, Ron. "CNN's Woman at Front." People, December 20, 1993.

"Christiane Amanpour." Biography Today. Detroit, MI: Omnigraphics, 2002.

"Christiane Amanpour." Newsmakers 1997. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group, 2003.

Jolis, Alan."Eyewitness: From Sarajevo to Somalia, CNN's Christiane Amanpour Covers the World"s Prime Trouble Spots." Vogue, March 1994.