“ As a woman I am very sensitized to the absolute need to have women equally represented in all elements of society including in media organizations from top to bottom whether behind the scenes or in front of the camera”. 

Christiane Amanpour, CNN, Women Make the News: Gender Equality and the Media

Champion and defender of gender equality in and through Media

CNN Chief International Correspondent and ABC News Global Affairs Anchor
UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists

Christiane Amanpour is the newly appointed UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Freedom of  Expression and Safety of Journalists. She has been an international journalist for more than three decades. She is currently CNN’s chief international correspondents, host of the award-winning programme “Amanpour”, and the global affairs anchor for ABC News. One of her first tasks during her career as a journalist required her to cover the Gulf War and has since reported from major conflict hotspots in the Gulf, in Africa and in the Balkans. In addition to covering key international events and conflicts, she has also interviewed many of the world's top leaders, including Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac, Mohammad Khatami, Hosni Mubarak and was the first journalist to obtain an interview with King Abdullah of Jordan. Christiane Amanpour is known for her fearlessness and uncompromised approach and has received the most important and major journalistic awards. In addition to her journalistic career, Amanpour is an active rights campaigner and a champion and defender of gender equality in and through Media. She is a board member of the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Centre for Public Integrity and the International Women's Media Foundation.

"Through the press association, I established a women's committee for the purpose of supporting women journalists in Jordan to be more effective in the media and to also be in continuous contact with women journalists throughout the Arab world"

Mahassen Al-Emam, IIPDigital

Director and founder of the Arab Women Media Center (AWMC)
Jordan’s first female newspaper editor-in-chief

Mahassen al-Emam, is the director and founder of the Arab Women Media Center (AWMC), a nongovernmental organization in Jordan that trains women journalists and helps promote the role of media in democracy. She began her career at a time when it was virtually unheard of to have a woman journalist in the Arab world. In 1994, al-Emam became Jordan’s first female newspaper editor-in-chief and was elected to the board of the journalists union three years later. Mahassen al-Elmam tried to create a path for other women to follow her into journalism by suggesting to implement training courses and scholarships for female journalists. Having her proposition rejected by the board, in 1999, she established the Arab Women Media Center in Amman. Al-Emam frequently pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable for newspapers to publish in Jordan. In October 2002, she was awarded the Knight International Press Fellowship Award for “defying governmental restrictions and ignoring limitations imposed by her male counterparts.” Al Emam has a fierce and ambitious vision for press freedom and gender equity.