Ben Wedeman is CNN’s senior correspondent in Jerusalem, named to that position in the summer of 2006.
Wedeman’s reporting is distinguished by his strong focus on the personal impact of global events in the conflicts he has covered. Since moving to CNN’s Jerusalem bureau in mid-2006, he has already established his reputation for the depth of his coverage of almost every aspect of the continuing struggle between Israel and the Palestinians and has also closely followed the emerging humanitarian crisis in Gaza. He has covered many breaking news events in the region including being the first journalist to break the news that BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston had been released in July 2007.
In the summer of 2006 Wedeman reported from south Lebanon where he was CNN’s senior reporter in Tyre during the war between Israel and Hezbollah. Day after day, as the bombs fell, he highlighted the suffering of ordinary people in that war. Wedeman and the CNN team he worked with during this time went on to win the RTNDA Edward R. Murrow award for their coverage from Lebanon.
Prior to taking up this post, Wedeman was CNN’s bureau chief in Cairo, where he gained notoriety for his fearless coverage of the struggle between the Mubarak regime and pro-democracy activists.
Wedeman moved to Cairo in 1998 where he covered the struggle of Egyptians to find a voice after millennia of authoritarian rule. Beyond his base in the Egyptian capital, he also covered a succession of wars in the Balkans, the ups and downs of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, numerous crises in Iraq. Wedeman also covered famine and strife in Africa, including award-winning coverage of the brutal civil war in Sierra Leone.
In 2003 he reported on the US-led invasion of Iraq from Kurdish territory in the north of the country where he was one of the first journalists to cover the fall of the city of Kirkuk. He continued to follow developments in Iraq following the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, travelling throughout the country highlighting the myriad of difficulties that would confront coalition forces as they tried to impose order in the post-Saddam era. Wedeman was also the first western journalist to interview Iraqi prisoners tortured by American soldiers in what was to become the infamous Abu Ghraib scandal.
In 2002 he played a central role in CNN’s coverage of the Operation Defensive Shield, when Israel, retaliating for a series of bloody suicide bombings, reoccupied the West Bank. He was there at every critical twist and turn of the story, for suicide bombings in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa, and for the Israeli incursions in Ramallah, Bethlehem, Tulkaram and Jenin.
Following the September 11 2001 terror attacks on the United States, Wedeman was one of the few journalists to gain access to Iraq, picking up on Iraqi fears that eventually Washington’s wrath would be felt in Baghdad. In Afghanistan he subsequently covered the collapse of the Taliban, and was the only western journalist to interview, via radio and in Arabic, Al-Qaeda fighters holed up in the rugged mountains of Tora Bora.
Shortly afterwards, in Karachi, Pakistan, Wedeman obtained the first interview with Marianne Pearl, the wife of kidnapped - and later executed - Wall Street Journal reporter, Daniel Pearl.
Wedeman has been with CNN since 1994, when he joined the network’s bureau in Amman, Jordan, as a fixer/producer/sound technician. In 1995 he became the Amman bureau chief where he was responsible not only for the network’s coverage of Jordan’s evolving relationship with Israel after their historic peace deal, but also for coverage of Iraq under Saddam Hussein. In 1996 he was part of the CNN team that won the overseas press club Edward R. Murrow Award for Best TV interpretation or documentary on foreign affairs
He was the first journalist in to Baghdad and the last one out when it came to CNN’s renowned coverage of Iraq. During that time he covered a bruising succession of crises between Iraq and the United Nations over weapons inspections. Along the way he focused on the plight of ordinary Iraqis under the draconian system of sanctions imposed by the UN where he distinguished himself for his in-depth coverage of the impact of those sanctions. He was also the only western journalist to obtain an exclusive interview with Udai Saddam Hussein, the notorious son of the Iraqi dictator.
Wedeman’s reporting has been recognised with an Emmy and an Edward R. Murrow award for his coverage of the brutal civil war in Sierra Leone.
Before joining CNN, Wedeman worked as a freelance print journalist based in Amman, Jordan, covering the news in Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories and Sudan. He has lived on and off in the Middle East since 1974, and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Oriental Languages and Linguistics from the University of Texas, Austin, and a masters degree in Middle Eastern Studies from London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies. Obsessed with languages, Wedeman is fluent in Arabic, Italian and French, has a working knowledge of Hebrew, and has studied Japanese, Farsi, ancient Egyptian, and classical and contemporary Mongolian.
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