Clarissa Ward accepts a 2020 duPont Columbia Award along with Nic Robertson for CNN’s reporting on the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
“Everybody who does this work should be checking in with a therapist from time to time because you don't know how it's affecting you, but it is affecting you. And it's like the corona virus curve - by the time you realize it's affecting you, you're too late. You need to start the work beforehand because that's the way that trauma works.” — Clarissa Ward, CNN Chief International Correspondent on how she
Clarissa Ward’s first duPont Award was in 2013 for her risky reporting inside Syria for CBS News.
CNN’s Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward knows a thing or two about the impact of covering conflict and crises. She has interviewed Taliban extremists in Afghanistan, lived through suicide bombs in Iraq, and reported from dozens of other global hotspots. She won her second duPont Award this year as part of the CNN team’s exceptional reporting on the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
In this episode of On Assignment, she joins duPont Awards Director, Lisa R. Cohen for a conversation about how CNN managed to break story after story on Khashoggi’s disappearance; how she has handled challenging reporting situations, including trauma self-care; and the creative ways she has continued reporting on COVID-19. They also discuss her soon-to-be-released memoir On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist. Check out an excerpt now from the book about Ward’s reporting while pregnant in Elle Magazine.
This conversation was recorded as part of an online audience event co-sponsored by the duPont-Columbia Awards and the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma.
The 2021 duPont Awards are now open for submissions! See duPont.org for more information and to enter. Deadline July 1.
The 2020 duPont-Columbia Award ceremony, at which Ward and CNN International were honored, took place on January 21st. Watch the full 2020 ceremony, here. Check our Facebook page facebook.com/duPontColumbiaAwards.