Clarissa Ward

Last updated

Clarissa Ward
Clarissa Ward holding Peabody Award 2012 (cropped).jpg
Ward in 2012
Born (1980-01-31) January 31, 1980 (age 44)
London, England
Education Yale University (BA)
OccupationJournalist
Years active2003–present
Notable credit CBS News
Spouse
Philipp von Bernstorff
​
​
(m. 2016)​
Children3

Clarissa Ward (born January 31, 1980) [1] is a British-American television journalist who is the chief international correspondent for CNN. [2] Previously, she was with CBS News, based in London. Before her CBS News position, Ward was a Moscow-based news correspondent for ABC News programs. [3]

Contents

Early life

Ward was born in London to a British father and American mother. [4] [5] She grew up in London and New York City and attended the Godstowe and Wycombe Abbey boarding schools in England. [6] [4] [7] She graduated from Yale University in 2002, and holds an honorary doctor of letters degree from Middlebury College. [3] [8]

Career

Early career

Ward began her career as an overnight desk assistant at Fox News in 2003. From 2004 to 2005, she was an assignment editor for Fox News in New York City. She worked on the international desk coordinating coverage for stories such as the capture of Saddam Hussein, the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and the deaths of Yasir Arafat and Pope John Paul II. In 2006, she worked as a field producer for Fox News. She produced coverage of the Israeli-Lebanese war, the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit and subsequent Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip, the trial of Saddam Hussein and the 2005 Iraqi constitutional referendum.

Prior to October 2007, Ward was based in Beirut and worked as a correspondent for Fox News. She covered the execution of Saddam Hussein, the Iraq War troop surge of 2007, the Beirut Arab University riots and the 2007 Bikfaya bombings. She conducted interviews with notable figures such as Gen. David Petraeus, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih and Lebanese President Emile Lahoud. She also spent time embedded with the U.S. military in Iraq, most notably in Baqubah. [6]

ABC News

From October 2007 [6] to October 2010, Ward was an ABC News correspondent based in Moscow.[ citation needed ] She reported from Russia for all ABC News broadcasts and platforms, including World News with Charles Gibson , Nightline and Good Morning America , as well as ABC News Radio, and ABC News Now. On assignment in Russia, she covered the 2008 Russian presidential election. She was in Georgia at the time of the Russian intervention into Georgian territory. She was transferred to Beijing to serve as the ABC News Asian Correspondent, where she covered the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan. She has also covered the war in Afghanistan. [3]

CBS News

Ward's CBS career started as the network's foreign news correspondent in October 2011. She was a contributor for 60 Minutes and served as a fill-in anchor on CBS This Morning beginning in January 2014. [9]

Work at CNN

On September 21, 2015, CNN announced that Ward was joining the network and reporting for all of CNN's platforms, and would remain based in London. With more than a decade as a war correspondent, on August 8, 2016, she spoke at a United Nations Security Council meeting on the situation in the civil war-torn Aleppo. [10] [11]

In July 2018, CNN named her its chief international correspondent, succeeding Christiane Amanpour. In 2019, she became one of the first Western journalists to report on the life in areas controlled by the Taliban in Afghanistan. [12] [13] In August 2020, reports emerged that she and her team were under surveillance [ by whom? ] while in the Central African Republic in May 2019. [14]

In December 2020, in a joint investigation by The Insider and Bellingcat in co-operation with CNN and Der Spiegel , she reported how Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) members stalked Alexei Navalny for years, including just before his poisoning in August 2020. [15] The investigation detailed a special unit of the FSB specializing in chemical substances and investigators tracked members of the unit using telecom and travel data.

In February 2022, CNN deployed Ward, initially, to the city of Kharkiv, in order to cover the beginning of the Russian Invasion in Ukraine. After the first days of war, she was relocated to Kyiv, where she engaged in a series of wartime reports on the advance of Russian troops and the flight of Ukrainian refugees away from Russian artillery strikes. [16] She was among the journalists who travelled to Ukraine to give insights into the humanitarian situation for children and wounded civilians in Ukrainian hospitals amidst the ongoing conflict. [17]

In December 2023, Ward covered the Israel-Hamas war. In a six-minute video report, she depicted the grim conditions in Gaza, emphasizing the impact on civilians and describing them as the worst she had seen in the strip in her 20 years as a reporter. Visiting a UAE-operated field hospital, Ward witnessed overwhelmed medical staff and interviewed an injured girl. While her report received praise, some criticized the attention, urging equal recognition for Palestinian journalists and aid workers. Ward faced past controversies, including accusations of fabricating a live report and misquoting UN statistics in her coverage of Gaza. [18]

Fall of Assad Coverage and Controversy

In December 2024, amidst the fall of the Assad regime, Ward was accused of faking an interview with an alleged prisoner of said regime. The man was shown being discovered by her crew in a prison, hidden under a blanket, later being told he was free to go and shown walking out gripping Ward’s arm. However, he looked well and his cell was clean. CNN has denied staging the report and has defended Ward. [19] After this report, Syrian fact-checking group Verify-Sy found that the man gave a fake identity. [20] [21] CNN would later confirm the man featured was an intelligence officer, and not an ordinary citizen who had been imprisoned. First identifying himself as Adel Ghurbal, he was later found to be Salama Mohammad Salama, a lieutenant in the Assad regime's Air Force Intelligence Directorate. [22] [23] [24] [25]

Awards

Ward received a Peabody Award on May 21, 2012, in New York City for her journalistic coverage inside Syria during the Syrian uprising. [26] [27] In October 2014, Washington State University announced that she would receive the 2015 Murrow Award for International Reporting in April 2015. [28] She has also received seven Emmy Awards, an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Silver Baton, and honors from the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association. [29]

Personal life

In November 2016, at London's Chelsea Old Town Hall, Ward married Philipp von Bernstorff, a German fund manager, whom she had met at a 2007 dinner party in Moscow. [30] [31] They have three children, all boys, born 2018, 2020, and 2023. [32] [33] [34]

Her oldest son suffers from a rare genetic anomaly. Ward co-founded the Foundation for ARID1B Research after he was diagnosed. [35]

Ward speaks fluent English, French and Italian, conversational Russian, Arabic, and Spanish, and knows basic Mandarin Chinese. [27] [29]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ABC News (United States)</span> News division of the American Broadcasting Company

ABC News is the news division of the American television network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ABC World News Tonight with David Muir; other programs include morning news-talk show Good Morning America, Nightline, Primetime, 20/20, and Sunday morning political affairs program This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bashar al-Assad</span> President of Syria from 2000 to 2024

Bashar al-Assad is a Syrian politician, military officer, and former dictator who served as the 19th president of Syria from 2000 until his government was overthrown by Syrian rebels in December 2024. As president, Assad was commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and secretary-general of the Central Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. He is the son of Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria from 1971 until his death in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kyra Phillips</span> American journalist

Kyra Phillips is a correspondent for ABC News.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catherine Herridge</span> American journalist (born 1964)

Catherine Herridge is a Canadian-American journalist who was a senior investigative correspondent for CBS News in Washington D.C. from 2019 to 2024. She began at CBS after leaving her role as chief intelligence correspondent for Fox News Channel, which she joined at its inception in 1996. Herridge was among twenty CBS News employees who were laid off during budget cuts in February 2024, along with Jeff Glor, Jeff Pegues, Pamela Falk, and Christina Ruffini.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lara Logan</span> South African journalist and war correspondent

Lara Logan is a South African television and radio journalist and war correspondent. Logan's career began in South Africa with various news organizations in the 1990s. Her profile rose due to reporting around the American invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. She was hired as a correspondent for CBS News in 2002, eventually becoming Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maher al-Assad</span> Syrian general and commander of the 4th Division

Major General Maher Hafez al-Assad is a Syrian former military officer who served as commander of the Syrian Army's elite 4th Armoured Division, which, together with Syria's Military Intelligence, formed the core of the country's security forces until the collapse of Al-Assad's regime in 2024. He is the younger brother of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, and also was a member of the Central Committee of the Syrian Ba'ath Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asma al-Assad</span> First Lady of Syria from 2000 to 2024

Asma Fawaz al-Assad is the wife of Bashar al-Assad and former first lady of Syria. Her husband was president from 2000 until he was overthrown on 8 December 2024. Born to Syrian parents in London, she was also raised there and holds dual British and Syrian citizenship. She became First Lady when she married al-Assad, then President of Syria, on 13 December 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brianna Keilar</span> American journalist

Brianna Marie Keilar is an American journalist who currently serves as a co-anchor of the afternoon edition of CNN News Central. She previously worked as a White House correspondent, senior political correspondent, Congressional correspondent and general assignment correspondent for CNN in Washington. Prior to that, Keilar worked at CNN Newsource as a national correspondent, also in Washington. Before joining New Day, she was the host of CNN Right Now with Brianna Keilar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arwa Damon</span> American journalist

Arwa Damon is an American journalist who was most recently a senior international correspondent for CNN, based in Istanbul. From 2003, she covered the Middle East as a freelance journalist, before joining CNN in 2006. She is also president and founder of INARA, a humanitarian organization that provides medical treatment to refugee children from Syria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Blumenthal</span> American journalist (born 1977)

Max Blumenthal is an American journalist, author, blogger, and filmmaker. He was a writer for The Nation, AlterNet, The Daily Beast, Al Akhbar, Mondoweiss, and Media Matters for America, and has contributed to Al Jazeera English, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. He has been a writing fellow of the Nation Institute. He is a regular contributor to Sputnik and RT.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Muir</span> American broadcast journalist (born 1973)

David Jason Muir is an American journalist and anchor for ABC World News Tonight and co-anchor of the ABC News magazine 20/20, part of the news department of the ABC broadcast-television network, based in New York City. Muir previously served as the weekend anchor and primary substitute anchor on ABC's World News Tonight with Diane Sawyer before succeeding her on September 1, 2014. At ABC News, Muir has won multiple Emmy and Edward R. Murrow awards for his national and international journalism. He was the 2024 recipient of the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism. Muir won the Emmy for Outstanding Live News Program in both 2023 and 2024 and won the Edward R. Murrow Award for Network TV Newscast in the same years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tulsi Gabbard</span> American politician and Army reserve officer (born 1981)

Tulsi Gabbard is an American politician and military officer serving as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve since 2021. Gabbard served as U.S. representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district from 2013 to 2021. She also served as the youngest state legislator in Hawaii from 2002 to 2004. She was a candidate in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries. She left the Democratic Party in 2022 to become an independent. In 2024, she joined the Republican Party. In November 2024, President-elect Trump selected Gabbard for the position of director of national intelligence in his second term, starting January 2025.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bianna Golodryga</span> American journalist (born 1978)

Bianna Vitalievna Golodryga is a Soviet-born American news anchor and journalist. She currently co-anchors One World with Zain Asher on CNN International and CNN Max. She previously served as a senior global affairs analyst at CNN, and as news and finance anchor at Yahoo! News. Golodryga also co-anchored the weekend edition of Good Morning America and co-hosted CBS This Morning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Syrian civil war</span> Multi-sided war in Syria (2011–present)

The Syrian civil war is an ongoing multi-sided conflict in Syria involving various state-sponsored and non-state actors. In March 2011, popular discontent with the rule of Bashar al-Assad triggered large-scale protests and pro-democracy rallies across Syria, as part of the wider Arab Spring protests in the region. After months of crackdown by the government's security apparatus, various armed rebel groups such as the Free Syrian Army began forming across the country, marking the beginning of the Syrian insurgency. By mid-2012, the insurgency had escalated into a full-blown civil war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Media coverage of the Syrian civil war</span>

Since the start of the Syrian Civil War, all sides have used social media to try to discredit their opponents by using negative terms such as 'Syrian regime' for the government, 'armed gangs/terrorists' for the rebels, 'Syrian government/US State Department propaganda', 'biased', 'US/Western/foreign involvement'. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, given the complexity of the Syrian conflict, media bias in reporting remains a key challenge, plaguing the collection of useful data and misinforming researchers and policymakers regarding the actual events taking place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marie Colvin</span> American war correspondent (1956–2012)

Marie Catherine Colvin was an American journalist who worked as a foreign affairs correspondent for the British newspaper The Sunday Times from 1985 until her death. She was one of the most prominent war correspondents of her generation, widely recognized for her extensive coverage on the frontlines of various conflicts across the globe. On February 22, 2012, while she was covering the siege of Homs alongside the French photojournalist Rémi Ochlik, the pair were killed in a targeted attack by Syrian government forces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al Mayadeen</span> Lebanese satellite news television channel

Al Mayadeen is a Lebanese pan-Arabist satellite news television channel based in the city of Beirut. Launched on 11 June 2012, it has news reporters in most of the Arab countries. In the pan-Arabist television news market, it competes against Qatar-owned Al Jazeera and Saudi-owned Al Arabiya, and also against Sky News Arabia and BBC News Arabic. At the time it was founded, most of the channel's senior staff were former correspondents and editors of Al Jazeera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eva Bartlett</span> Canadian activist and blogger

Eva Karene Bartlett is an American Canadian activist, commentator, and blogger who has propagated conspiracy theories in connection to the Syrian civil war, most notably the disproven allegation that the White Helmets stage rescues and "recycle" children in its videos.

Sophie McNeill is an Australian journalist, television presenter, author and human rights activist. She is best known for her work reporting from conflict zones.

Vanessa Beeley is a British activist and blogger known for sharing conspiracy theories and disinformation about the Syrian civil war and about the Syrian volunteer organisation the White Helmets.

References

  1. ↑ Ward 2020, p. 18.
  2. ↑ "International Correspondent Clarissa Ward Joins CNN". CNN. September 21, 2015. Archived from the original on September 22, 2015. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 "Clarissa Ward". CBS News. Archived from the original on February 23, 2015. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  4. 1 2 "Clarissa Ward". The Female Lead Society. Archived from the original on October 25, 2020. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  5. ↑ Morrell, Michael (June 2, 2021). "Author and war correspondent Clarissa Ward on reporting from conflict zones". Intelligence Matters. CBS News. Archived from the original on August 20, 2021. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  6. 1 2 3 "Clarissa Ward". ABC News . June 2, 2006. Archived from the original on September 7, 2010. Retrieved August 20, 2022.
  7. ↑ Ward 2020, pp. 20–22.
  8. ↑ Ward 2020, p. 24.
  9. ↑ "CBS This Morning episode". January 20, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  10. ↑ Ward, Clarissa (August 12, 2016). "There are no winners in Aleppo". CNN.com. Archived from the original on June 26, 2017. Retrieved July 26, 2017.
  11. ↑ "Aleppo Under Siege: Syria's Latest Tragedy Unfolds - Security Council Arria-Formula Open Meeting (8 August 2016)". United Nations. Archived from the original on June 6, 2021. Retrieved July 26, 2017.
  12. ↑ "36 hours with the Taliban". www.cnn.com. Archived from the original on August 12, 2020. Retrieved April 27, 2019.
  13. ↑ "CNN's Clarissa Ward Spent 36 Hours With the Taliban. This is What She Learned". www.globaldispatchespodcast.com. Archived from the original on April 27, 2019. Retrieved April 27, 2019.
  14. ↑ Dobrokhotov, Roman; Grozev, Christo; Lehberger, Roman; Schmid, Fidelius (August 21, 2020). "Russische Söldner sollen CNN-Team ausspioniert haben" [Russian mercenaries are said to have spied on CNN team]. Der Spiegel (in German). Archived from the original on August 30, 2023. Retrieved July 1, 2021.
  15. ↑ Lister, Tim; Ward, Clarissa; Shukla, Sebastian (December 14, 2020). "CNN-Bellingcat Investigation Identifies Russian Specialists Who Trailed Putin's Nemesis Alexey Navalny Before He Was Poisoned". CNN. Archived from the original on September 29, 2021. Retrieved December 14, 2020.
  16. ↑ "See moment that made Clarissa Ward stop reporting and help". cnn.com. March 5, 2022. Archived from the original on March 5, 2022. Retrieved March 5, 2022.
  17. ↑ "CNN makes heartbreaking visit to Ukraine's largest children's hospital". cnn.com. March 4, 2022. Archived from the original on March 5, 2022. Retrieved March 5, 2022.
  18. ↑ "CNN reporter sees 'horror of modern war' from inside Gaza". The New Arab . December 15, 2023. Archived from the original on December 19, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  19. ↑ "CNN says "continuing to investigate" identity of alleged Syrian detainee in controversial report". Arab News. December 17, 2024. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
  20. ↑ "CNN confirms identity of freed Syrian prisoner as Assad intelligence officer". middleeasteye.net. Middle East Eye. Retrieved January 2, 2025.
  21. ↑ Al-Hamwi, Abdul-Salam. "Updated: Did CNN Fabricate the Story of "Freeing a Syrian Detainee from a Secret Prison"?". verify-sy.com. Verify Sy. Retrieved January 2, 2025.
  22. ↑ Kourdi, Eyad; Lister, Tim (December 16, 2024). "Freed prisoner who said he was a victim of the Assad regime was an intelligence officer, locals say". CNN. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
  23. ↑ "Truth or Fake - CNN investigates Syrian prisoner's 'false identity' in Clarissa Ward report". France 24. December 16, 2024. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
  24. ↑ "CNN launches investigation after Syrian prisoner rescue report faces intense scrutiny". Middle East Eye. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
  25. ↑ Barr, Jeremy. "CNN says it was misled by man freed in Syria report with Clarissa Ward" . Retrieved December 17, 2024.
  26. ↑ "The CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley: Inside Syria". The Peabody Awards. Archived from the original on October 18, 2022. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
  27. 1 2 Casserly, Meghan (April 19, 2012). "Dream Jobs: Clarissa Ward, CBS News Foreign Correspondent". Forbes . Archived from the original on June 23, 2012. Retrieved June 4, 2012.
  28. ↑ "CBS News correspondent to receive Murrow College award". Washington State University. October 17, 2014. Archived from the original on December 5, 2014. Retrieved November 30, 2014.
  29. 1 2 "Clarissa Ward". CNN . Archived from the original on December 17, 2020. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
  30. ↑ Palmer, Anna; Sherman, Jake; Lippman, Daniel; Lacy, Akela (July 12, 2018). "Politico Playbook Power Briefing: Partisan Brawl Breaks Out in Strzok Hearing". Politico. Archived from the original on November 28, 2020. Retrieved December 26, 2020.
  31. ↑ Kim, Leena (April 20, 2017). "An Award-Winning Journalist's London Wedding". Town & Country. Archived from the original on October 28, 2020. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  32. ↑ Katz, A. J. (March 7, 2018). "Clarissa Ward Gives Birth to Baby Boy". adweek.it. Archived from the original on November 25, 2023. Retrieved December 21, 2020.
  33. ↑ "Clarissa Ward on Instagram: "On Monday June 29th, 2020 at 929am Caspar Hugo Augustus Idris von Bernstorff was born and three became four. The most blissful blessing!…"". Instagram. Archived from the original on December 24, 2021. Retrieved December 21, 2020.
  34. ↑ "CNN's Clarissa Ward Welcomes Her Third Baby". People. May 24, 2023. Archived from the original on June 24, 2023. Retrieved June 24, 2023.
  35. ↑ "About Us". Foundation for ARID1B Research. June 10, 2024. Retrieved December 10, 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.