CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR ANNOUNCES CNN DEPARTURE

Christiane Amanpour said on Monday that she will leave CNN at the end of June 2027, ending 43 years with the network. Amanpour, CNN’s chief international anchor, said she reached the decision after “many months of thought and a few sleepless nights”. In a memo to CNN staff, she said her daily CNN programme and her PBS programme would end by the close of 2026. She plans to continue her weekly CNN programme until May 2027. Amanpour also said she looked forward to new projects, but gave no details.

Amanpour began working at CNN in 1983 as an assistant on its international assignment desk. She described coverage of the first Gulf war as her first major assignment. In an account of her career, she also named Bosnia, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Ukraine and Iran among the places she had covered. She has hosted an evening programme on CNN’s international channel since 2009 and Amanpour & Company for PBS since 2017. Amanpour said her colleagues had worked to seek “the facts, the evidence and the humanity” in their reporting.

CNN CEO Mark Thompson said he and Amanpour had discussed her departure for several months. He said he was sorry to see her go and had accepted that the timing was right for her personally and professionally. CNN is now part of Skydance, a media group run by David Ellison and backed by his father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. Amanpour said she would continue to support CNN and its “history of independent journalism”. She ended her message to colleagues: “Remember: always be truthful, not neutral.”