An Interview With Christiane Amanpour

Saya pertama kali mengenal Christiane Amanpour sewaktu ia tampil di “The Oprah Winfrey Show” sekitar tahun 2004-2005 lalu. Saya merasa sangat takjub saat mengenal sosok perempuan hebat ini. Bekerja sebagai seorang jurnalis CNN, Amanpour kerap melakukan live report dari berbagai negara dan daerah konflik di dunia. Saya yang pada saat itu masih mahasiswa tingkat 1 menjadi begitu terinspirasi olehnya. Keinginan untuk terjun di dunia jurnalistik pun semakin kuat. Bahkan saya sempat bermimpi untuk menjadi seorang jurnalis khusus daerah konflik layaknya Amanpour.

Medio oktober lalu, saya diberikan kesempatan untuk mewawancarai Amanpour dalam rangka peluncuran program terbarunya. Karena fasilitas kantor yang tidak memadai, saya hanya bisa melakukan interview lewat email. Berikut petikan wawancara saya dengan Christiane Amanpour.


1. Why do you want to become a journalist? Is it something that you want to do since you were kid?

I was an Iranian who came to America at the height of the hostage crisis, when the relations between the United States and Iran were at their worst, and yet I somehow managed to get into American journalism at a time when I started, 26 years ago, there were no dark haired women on television I America, there were no people with a different accent on television in America. And I didn’t take no for an answer. I joined CNN out of college luckily because I couldn’t get into many other stations and I set my sights, and I worked very very hard, I came in on my own time I believed in what I wanted to do, and I believe in the power of journalism and that is how I’ve lived my life and my career.

2. So, it’s been a while since you become an international correspondent. You’ve been reported on all the major crises from the world’s many hotspots. Would you like to share with us about your some memorable experiences?

The most challenging country that I’ve ever been to must be North Korea, because it is so different from any other country I’ve ever been to. It’s literally closed off and hermetically sealed. You don’t go there and plug into the internet. You don’t go there and turn on satellite television or listen to global radio. It’s very very sealed off and trying to just talk to ordinary people is a challenge, much less get to the leaders and opinion makers. It’s very very difficult that has been a big challenge although when I did go for the first time it was under special circumstances when the New York Philharmonic orchestra went there, it was a moment of thaw, where North Korea wanted a better relationship with the West and with the United States.

It was like scales had dropped from my eyes and we were able to come back with an hour long documentary which we shot in about four days, not just on the cultural and on the personal, but also we were shown around the all important nuclear power plant there. And it was an amazing insight into this hermit kingdom. I find trying to crack those challenges one of the most valuable services I can perform as a journalist.

3. You have won some awards from your works in journalism field. Do you have your own special approach to create news report?

I strongly believe that the role of a journalist is to ask the really tough questions no matter how tough it is for the interviewer or interviewee. I think the role of a journalist is to probe and probe until you get the right answer, until you get as close to the truth and what’s happening as possible. I think that the role of the journalist is to provide some context, some analysis as well to provide background, not just to give the immediate story but to go behind the headlines, to break the stereotypes, to break the clichés and to really engage with the people who are making the news and who are affecting people’s lives.

4. What are the difficulties of being a journalist?

I always say what I do is an extreme profession, covering wars is extreme, covering genocide is extreme , covering famine and other disaster that affect other people’s lives is an extreme way to live your life. It is difficult to come back and have a normal live after that and there are ways that I have remained sane and that is by putting my energy, my intellect, my physical stamina into telling the story, but also by having a very solid family, by having a very solid group of friends, by having a very solid group of colleagues and team mates whom I can always talk about things with, and really out things into perspective and I think that’s what counts when you come back from these extreme experiences to be able to put what you’ve experienced into perspective and not just be able to file it away in some drawer and not be able to use it and try and hide it.

5. You've been interviewing many famous guest speaker, is there someone particular that you would like to interview, but still not happening until now?

There are a lot of people left to interview. I want to interview Kim Jung Il, will I ever have the chance I don’t know, I want to interview the Pope, will I have the chance, I don’t know. I want to interview, there is this whole selection of world leaders that I want to interview about specific things that are affecting all of out lives, whether its about war and peace, whether its social development, whether is women's rights, or of those issues I want to explore with the people who can make a difference.

6. Now you have your own program called “Amanpour”, would you like to tell us about this program?

This is the interview program that will show that there is more than just breaking news and it will satisfy the hunger of people of what happens behind the news. This program will give more explanation, more information, context and perspective on all the breaking news that bombards us throughout the day.

This is an international show. I hope people don’t think this is an American show. This is a show that originates from New York, which many call the capital of the world but its an international show, it’s a show that will seek the voice and the views from all around the world and it will have when necessary and when appropriate the American voice because America is still the worlds biggest power, although its relative power is declining somewhat with the rise of other nations and that we want to put into context as well. America does have so much ownership of what goes wrong or right in the world, and it affects Europe, it affects Africa, it affects the Middle East, it affect s the Far east, and all of those we want to explore in context. It will have a definite global perspective.

7. What’s the purpose from this “Amanpour” program? Is there anything that you want to accomplish with this program?

I hope people will find this is the program of record on CNN International. It’ll show that there is more than just breaking news and it’ll I think satisfy the hunger of people of what happens behind the news. More probing, more context, more analysis and more information and understanding.

8. What’s the difference between “Amanpour” and other news reportage program?

I hope this program also will grab vital issues of the day that never see the light of day, or at least are not explained in as deep a context as they can be. Whatever it is, whether it’s the economic crisis, whether it’s torture and how do you confront the idea of Guantanamo Bay or what to do with the people who are wrongly arrested and need to be released into society. How do you confront climate change? It’s not just an abstract thing it affects each and every one of us. What do our leaders need to do? How do you deal with places like Afghanistan where some leaders don’t want to go in and do the hard, hard work that it will take to really turn that place around? And I think all these issues are ripe for exploration.

For example what about the Muslim World? President Osama has said the United States cannot afford to have another generation of Muslims that view it as the enemy. But what does that mean? What are the leaders going to do to make sure that doesn’t happen? What are we going to do to address desperate needs of that huge pool of Muslim youth around the world. All these issues need answers. They need to be tackled, and I hope that this can be a forum in which we can do that.

9. What are you doing in your spare time with your family?
I like to spend my time with my family. When I’m away from work I like to spend my time with family and my friends. And the one thing that I have really done to sustain me is to maintain my relationships even though I’ve been on the road so much of the last twenty years. Every time I come home I connect with the people who mean the most to me, and that has sustained me. I also like though to go to the cinema, to go to theatres, to travel for pleasure, busman's holiday I know but I love it, I love to do sports and I like to read and like to after all the ugliness and bitterness that I see in my professional life I really focus on beauty, and calm and peace when I come.