Guardian: 'What we do is really tough'

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'What we do is really tough'


Christiane Amanpour is reputedly the world's highest-paid reporter. She tells Julie Ferry about filing from war zones, why there's more to news than Paris Hilton - and why three months' maternity leave was a mistake

Wednesday August 15, 2007
The Guardian


The day I meet Christiane Amanpour, is, indisputably, a big news day. Alan Johnston has just been freed from his kidnapping ordeal in Gaza and the Glasgow airport attacks took place only a few days before. All of which is making me nervous. From past experience I know that journalists such as Amanpour hate to be bothered when such stories are breaking - they would much rather be on the ground, hunting down leads and interviewing witnesses.

My nerves fade, though, as CNN's chief international correspondent - and a woman said to be the world's highest-paid reporter - greets me at the network's London office, with a businesslike handshake and apologies for having to eat lunch through the interview. We are here to talk about Amanpour's new documentary series God's Warriors. In the programmes, which took seven months to make, she reports on the growing overlap between religious fervour and politics and profiles those within Christianity, Islam, and Judaism who view themselves as part of the battle for cultural supremacy and political power. (Or, as the blurb has it, she profiles "Patriot Pastors who seek to change American culture through the ballot box, zealots who target prime ministers and presidents with assassination for 'subverting God's will' and suicide martyrs who are revered as iconic heroes.")

In the flesh, Amanpour, 49, seems a world away from her image as a hardened war correspondent. The tall, imposing figure who has become a fixture on our TV screens, is relaxed and friendly. In many ways this documentary is a departure for her - a move from fast-paced reporting of the world's danger zones to a more reflective programme.




http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,2148971,00.html

[babylonsister]

1. Bookmarked. nt

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

2. Good.

MKJ