Clarissa Ward

Clarissa Ward commenced her journalistic career in 2003 as an overnight desk assistant at Fox News, quickly advancing to an assignment editor role in New York City from 2004-2005, coordinating coverage for global events including the capture of Saddam Hussein, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and the passing of Yasir Arafat and Pope John Paul II. By 2006, as a field producer for Fox News, Ward covered the Israeli-Lebanese war, the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit, and Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip. She also reported on the trial of Saddam Hussein and the 2005 Iraqi constitutional referendum, interviewing Gen. David Petraeus and embedding with the U.S.

In 2019, Ward became one of the first Western journalists to report from Taliban-controlled areas in Afghanistan, providing invaluable insight. Ward continued to break major stories, co-reporting a groundbreaking investigation in December 2020 with The Insider and Bellingcat, which unveiled Russian Federal Security Service members tracked Alexei Navalny prior to his poisoning. In February 2022, she delivered extensive, on-the-ground coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, reporting from Kharkiv and Kyiv to detail Russian troop advances and the Ukrainian refugee crisis. In December 2023, Ward provided harrowing reports from Gaza, powerfully highlighting severe civilian conditions and describing the situation as the worst witnessed in her two decades as CNN’s Chief International Correspondent.