HONOURING ONE OF THE BRAVEST JOURNALISTS OF THE WORLD

Clarissa Ward is CNN’s chief international correspondent based in London. Recently Clarissa reporting fearlessly live on the ground from Afghanistan and has shown incredible bravery. For more than 15 years, Clarissa has reported from front lines across the world from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen to Ukraine to Georgia and Iran. She’s one of the great references of the profession and deserves to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom as a direct witness to the fall of Kabul.

Clarissa has won multiple awards for her reporting:

1. Two George Foster Peabody Awards
2. Two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Awards
3. Seven Emmy Awards
4. Two Edward R. Murrow Awards for distinguished journalism
5. Honors from the Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association
6. 2017 David Kaplan Award from the Overseas Press Club
7. Ted Sorensen Award from Network 20/20 in recognition for adeptly crafting the first draft of history and providing original insight into the people and events of our time.
8. Excellence in International Reporting Award from the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) for her outstanding war reporting in hotspots like Iraq and Syria.

Clarissa’s career in journalism started in 2002 as an intern at CNN’s Moscow Bureau. She has since been based in Baghdad, Beijing, Beirut, Moscow, New York and London. She speaks fluent French and Italian, conversational Russia, Arabic and Spanish and basic Mandarin. She graduated with distinction from Yale University, and in 2013 received an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Middlebury College in Vermont.