CNN Foreign Correspondent Amanpour Honored

While Sept. 11 upped interest in international news, coverage is vital at all times, CNN’s chief foreign correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, said last night in an awards ceremony at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

The 10th annual awards ceremony honored the British-born and half-Iranian reporter with the Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism for a career largely spent covering such conflict-ridden areas as Iran, Yugoslavia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Rwanda, Kuwait, Somalia and, most recently, Afghanistan.

Calling the events of the past six months “the best of times and the worst of times” for foreign correspondents, she criticized the “hyper-patriotism” of initial coverage and said coverage should educate Americans about why some people hate the United States.

While the American people seem more willing to accept casualties in the current conflict, Amanpour said the American government is less willing to divulge meaningful information.

She said the government continues to blame the press for losing the Vietnam War, causing overly restrictive censorship during the Gulf War and afterward. She used two examples from her experience in the latter conflict to illustrate when censorship is necessary for national security and when it strays into the realm of public relations.

As part of a press pool, she said, not immediately disclosing an announcement that the troops she was covering would soon bomb Iraq was necessary censorship. However, Amanpour said, unnecessary censorship cut descriptions of soldiers perusing pornography from a fellow reporter’s story.

“Increasingly, censorship has become a matter of public image,” Amanpour said. “The balance is totally out of whack. All of the meaningful information is coming out of Washington,” rather than directly from Afghanistan, she said.

The situation in Afghanistan has added more pressure and danger to her already challenging work, she said, especially as the deaths of Daniel Pearl and eight other journalists have had “a chilling effect” on reporters there.

However, Amanpour said, the duty of performing a public service justifies the risks, although they trouble her more now that she has a husband and a toddler.

“When my son is old enough to ask me why I do this, I’ll say, ‘Because if I don’t, the bad guys will win,'” she said.

In addition to exclusive interviews with Jordan’s King Abdullah, Mikhail Gorbachev and Hillary Clinton, Amanpour talked with Pakistani President Gen. Perevez Musharraf shortly after the World Trade Center attacks, highlighting the complexities of the area while increasing her own profile.

“She is undoubtedly a journalism celebrity, but she is not a diva,” said Alex Jones, director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, which sponsored the ceremony.

Although a Washington Post writer called Amanpour “the diva of parachute journalism” in a November article, many have praised her frank reporting style.

Harvard graduate student, Tony Joseph, 34, said she deserved the award “this year or any year” and agreed international news is important for balancing how Americans’ self-perceptions differ from world opinions.

“She has brought a lot of clarity to reporting,” Joseph said. “She has a very solid presence and adds another dimension. A lot of people are able to report what happens but are unable to analyze and dissect it.”

The Career Award aims to recognize journalists who enhance society with political knowledge, and Amanpour joined a list of winners that includes Ted Turner, Dan Rather, Barbara Walters, Peter Jennings, Mike Wallace, Ted Koppel and Bob Woodward.

In addition to two book awards and a prize for investigative reporting, the Shorenstein Center gave a special Goldsmith award to The New York Times for “Portraits of Grief,” its series of vivid obituaries for Sept. 11 victims.