Ben Wedeman

Ben Wedeman has been CNN's senior international correspondent based in Rome, Italy since November 2012. Wedeman has been with CNN since 1994, when he joined the network's bureau in Amman, Jordan, as a fixer/producer/sound technician. In 1995 he became the Amman bureau chief where he was responsible not only for the network's coverage of Jordan's evolving relationship with Israel after their historic peace deal, but also for coverage of Iraq under Saddam Hussein. In 1996 he was part of the CNN team that won the overseas press club Edward R. Murrow Award for Best TV interpretation or documentary on foreign affairs He was the first journalist in to Baghdad and the last one out when it came to CNN's renowned coverage of Iraq. During that time he covered a bruising succession of crises between Iraq and the United Nations over weapons inspections. Along the way he focused on the plight of ordinary Iraqis under the draconian system of sanctions imposed by the UN where he distinguished himself for his in-depth coverage of the impact of those sanctions. He was also the only western journalist to obtain an exclusive interview with Udai Saddam Hussein, the notorious son of the Iraqi dictator. Wedeman's reporting has been recognised with an Emmy and an Edward R. Murrow award for his coverage of the brutal civil war in Sierra Leone. Before joining CNN, Wedeman worked as a freelance print journalist based in Amman, Jordan, covering the news in Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories and Sudan. He has lived on and off in the Middle East since 1974, and earned a Bachelor's degree in Oriental Languages and Linguistics from the University of Texas, Austin, and a masters degree in Middle Eastern Studies from London University's School of Oriental and African Studies. Obsessed with languages, Wedeman is fluent in Arabic, Italian and French, has a working knowledge of Hebrew, and has studied Japanese, Russian, Farsi, ancient Egyptian, and classical and contemporary Mongolian.