www.sfgate.com
CNN's Christiane Amanpour banned from two Middle Eastern countries
DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer
Wednesday, October 9, 2002
C2002 Associated Press
URL:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/10/09/ent
ertainment1454EDT0684.DTL
(10-09) 12:41 PDT NEW YORK (AP) --
CNN international correspondent Christiane Amanpour has been banned
from two countries that fought a nearly
decade-long war in the 1980s -- Iraq and Iran.
On Wednesday, Iran barred Amanpour from accompanying British
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who is visiting the
region. She had to get off the plane in Kuwait.
The Iranian-born Amanpour is also one of three CNN reporters, along
with Wolf Blitzer and Richard Roth, who are
currently refused entry to Iraq, the network said.
Iran Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said Amanpour was banned in
retaliation for U.S. treatment of Iranians who
want to visit the United States.
"Some Iranian journalists and artists, including film director
Abbas Kiarostami, were either denied U.S. visas or left
waiting for months for a decision. We, of course, take this into
account," Kharrazi told reporters.
The United States has long required visiting Iranians to be
fingerprinted upon arrival. More recently, as part of
security measures taken after the Sept. 11 attacks, Iranians who
apply for U.S. visas are among those who have
been subject to time-consuming checks and are registered upon
arrival.
Eason Jordan, CNN president of newsgathering, called Iran's action
"troubling and unwarranted."
"A lot of people are scared of Christiane Amanpour," Jordan said,
"even people at the Pentagon, who half-jokingly
track her movements around the world as an indicator that there may
be trouble happening in that region."
CNN has no immediate hope of getting Amanpour into Iraq. The cable
news network currently has correspondents
Jane Arraf, Nic Robertson and Rula Amin stationed there.
In recent weeks, ABC briefly had trouble getting visas approved for
visiting journalists in Iraq because of Claire
Shipman's interview with a former mistress of Saddam Hussein's. ABC
correspondent David Wright is now in Iraq.
C2002 Associated Press
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