CNN International's Michael Holmes Joins Newsroom International
CNN Press Release - On Monday, February 18, CNN International anchor Michael Holmes will join Suzanne Malveaux as co-anchor of Newsroom International. Malveaux and Holmes will take viewers around the world in 60 minutes covering the day's most important global news, trends and destinations.
In addition to Newsroom International on CNN/US, Holmes will continue to anchor CNN International's daily news program, International Desk.
New Special Reveals Challenges Faced By CNN Crew In Homs, Syria
CNN has produced a new special special that documents the challenges and dangers a CNN team faced while on a recent assignment in Homs, Syria. The one hour program debuts on CNN Domestic on Sunday, and airs across this weekend on CNN International. Details from CNN below.
CNN Press Release:72 Hours Under Fire features CNN correspondent Arwa Damon; airs on CNN/US Sunday, March 11 at 8pET & PT
Homs, Syria – considered one of the most dangerous places CNN has ever covered – is at the heart of a one-hour special documenting the challenges and dangers faced by a CNN team while on assignment there. As told by the journalists who risked their lives to get into Homs and the CNN news executives tasked with keeping them safe, 72 Hours Under Fire gives viewers an inside look at the complexities and risks involved in getting the story out of Syria.
72 Hours Under Fire airs Sunday, March 11 at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m., and Saturday, March 17 at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. Eastern and Pacific on CNN/US. It premieres on CNN International Friday, March 9 at 3 p.m., and replays Saturday, March 10 at 4 a.m., 3 p.m., and 9 p.m., and Sunday, March 11 at 6 a.m., all times Eastern.
“Homs is as challenging an editorial operation as we have encountered,” says Tony Maddox, executive vice president and managing director of CNN International.
The experienced team CNN sent into Homs included Beirut-based correspondent Arwa Damon, photojournalist Neil Hallsworth and security risk advisor Tim Crockett. 72 Hours Under Fire chronicles their journey into and out of Homs, the dangers they faced while newsgathering and reporting there and why this assignment was different than previous ones. Damon, Hallsworth and Crockett are interviewed by CNN anchor Michael Holmes, who also narrates the documentary.
“We are taking the unusual step of covering our journalists’ experience in Homs because it is another piece of the untold story in Syria,” says Mark Whitaker, executive vice president and managing editor of CNN Worldwide. “The fact that the Syrian government doesn’t want the world to know what is happening in places like Homs, and the enormous effort and courage it has taken for Western journalists to cover the brutal crackdown there, is part of the story. We thought it was important to take our viewers behind the scenes to see and feel that part of this conflict, too.”
Since the unrest began in March of last year, thousands of civilians in Syria have been killed by Syrian forces. The indiscriminate shelling in the opposition stronghold of Homs by the Syrian government made it incredibly difficult for the CNN team to reach their desired destination. Maddox, who admits to feeling “anxious” about this assignment, says the team’s mission depended upon a “fragile series of connections” that took a great deal of research and time to put into place.
“I actually wrote a letter home for the first time, to my family…when this trip was going to materialize,” says Damon. “There was a lot of unknown going in and sometimes you get that gut feeling. I felt in this particular case – on this particular trip – I had to do it.”
Helped by opposition activists to reach the besieged Homs neighborhood of Bab Amr, Damon and crew visit a makeshift clinic that lacked the equipment and expertise to help many of their patients. The clinic, which Damon says is “bombarded all the time and constantly under risk,” is staffed by two doctors and around 20 volunteers, each of whom has undergone just 15 days of training. The crisis in Homs is palpable, and the number of wounded civilians is overwhelming. When asked about her motivation for going on this assignment, Damon speaks of the importance of physically being on the ground in Homs in order to fully understand what residents are experiencing.
“You have to be in it – seeing it, smelling it, listening to it – so that at the end of the day you can do justice to what the people are suffering. And [the activists] know by having us there, it’s going to help tell that story.”
72 Hours Under Fire also reveals the tough choices news executives like Maddox were constantly having to make, including pulling the team out of Syria before Damon wanted to leave.
CNN has extensively covered Syria throughout the year-long uprising. CNN has had four correspondents – some who have made multiple trips – report from inside Syria for all CNN networks and platforms. Many programs across CNN’s networks have focused on Syria, including Anderson Cooper 360°, which has covered Syria in more than 50% of their shows since March 2011. CNN is committed to Syria and will continue to find ways to bring this story to viewers.
Since those two tweets, nothing more was really mentioned about any new set. That is, nothing was mentioned until the close of Tuesday's show.
Watch the short video below of Michael Holmes teasing the new set, scheduled to debut next week when Isha Sesay takes over hosting duties fulltime, as well as a sneak peek of where the show will call home from next Monday.
CNN Domestic/International Simulcast on Lybia Uprising
CNN is simulcasting with CNN International tonight live coverage of the uprising in Lybia. Here is an updated programming schedule tonight. We'll keep this post updated as new developments come in.
Playing catch-up with several recent notables from CNN International...
* Justin Armsden, London-based World Sport presenter, has left the network after 10 years.
* Back|Story host Michael Holmes is currently in Iraq; he'll be reporting on the official pullout of U.S. combat forces from the country. Related promo is here
* CNN International has commenced marketing 'World Business Today'. The first promo for the current incarnation of the show is for Asian audiences.
* Connect The World introduces a new interactive feature this week called, 'Global Connections'. Each week, viewers will be asked to find the connection between two random countries. Learn more about the weekly segment here.
Several hours across the day have been reformatted. The main change has seen two editions of World Business Today extended to 60 minutes (from 30 minutes), and the 0600 GMT World Report also extended from 30 minutes to 60 minutes. The new weekday schedule - introduced last Monday - is below.
0000 GMT - World Business Today w/Colleen McEdwards & Pauline Chiou 0100 GMT - The Situation Room (delayed broadcast) (Monday: World View - 0100 / Taped feature -0130) 0200 GMT - Anderson Cooper 360 (Monday: Taped feature - 0200 / Taped featured - 0230) 0300 GMT - World Sport (tape) 0330 GMT - Taped feature 0400 GMT - World Report w/Pauline Chiou 0430 GMT - Back|Story (replay) w/Michael Holmes 0500 GMT - World Report w/Rosemary Church 0600 GMT - World Report w/Rosemary Church 0700 GMT - World Business Today w/Andrew Stevens & Charles Hodson 0800 GMT - World Report w/Zain Verjee 0830 GMT - Taped feature 0900 GMT - Larry King Live (delayed broadcast) 1000 GMT - World Report w/Monita Rajpal 1030 GMT - World Sport 1100 GMT - World Report w/Kristie Lu Stout 1130 GMT - Taped feature 1200 GMT - World Report w/Kristie Lu Stout 1300 GMT - World Business Today w/Andrew Stevens, Charles Hodson & Maggie Lake 1400 GMT - International Desk w/Isha Sesay 1500 GMT - The Brief w/Jim Clancy 1530 GMT - World Sport 1600 GMT - Prism w/Stan Grant (Friday: World Report) 1630 GMT - Taped feature 1700 GMT - International Desk w/Hala Gorani 1800 GMT - Quest Means Business w/Richard Quest 1900 GMT - World One w/Fionnuala Sweeney 2000 GMT - Connect The World w/Becky Anderson 2100 GMT - Back|Story w/Michael Holmes 2130 GMT - World Sport 2200 GMT - World Report w/Anna Coren 2300 GMT - World Report w/Anjali Rao
The refreshed schedule brings with it a couple of new anchor rosters:
* Rosemary Church has moved from weekend duties and been appointed anchor of the 0500 GMT World Report on weekdays. Rosemary is also currently hosting the second hour until a new host is named.
* Zain Verjee moves back to anchor the 0800 GMT, as well as host of the monthly 'iList' series.
*Don Riddell has moved back to sport duties to anchor World Sport and host the monthly 'Living Golf' program.
- Rosemary Church is headed to her home continent of Australia for a short break. BackStory's Michael Holmes will be filling for her on the first weekend block of shows.
- New York-based photojournalist Emmanuel Tambakakis was injured recently while in Greece. TVNewser has the story.
- In case you missed it, Tony Harris (anchor of CNN Newsroom on CNN Domestic) broke out in a little Michael Jackson a while back. They showed the video to him and here is his reaction (look for a great Kyra Phillips appearance):
Michael Holmes is set to host BackStory on CNN International. When? We're not sure. Until then, you can follow the show on Twitter. Rehearsals for the show were held at the network's headquarters in Atlanta today.
At 0844 gmt this morning, CNN/I came out of a commerical break and into breaking news, interrupting World Sport which was live in progress from London.
Max Foster was live outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster with news of Tony Blair's impending announcement of his retirement as leader of the Labour Party, and as Prime Minister. Live footage was shown of Blair's vehicle convoy heading for RAF Northolt, from where he was to fly to his constituency of Sedgefield in north-east England.
CNN stayed with live shots of Blair entering his jet, the jet journeying to the runaway, and the plane taking off.
Regular programming resumed at 0905 gmt, with Larry King Replay in progress.
During Business International at 1000gmt, CNN/I went back to live coverage of Blair as he arrived in Sedgefield, and travelled to the Labour Club there. Adrian Finighan was anchoring from the London studio, with Max Foster at Parliament and Robin Oakley in Downing Street.
CNN/I brought live coverage of Blair's speech, when he announced he will step aside on 27 June.
Continuing live coverage from Max Foster in Westminster replaced World News Asia at 1100 gmt and part of World News at 1200 gmt. This then continued with Michael Holmes in Atlanta, with more on the story.
As an aside, the CNN/I digital downlink on the Astra 19.2ºE satellite is having some problems today. For a couple of hours, the signal has broken up intermittantly, sometimes disappearing completely with a "bad signal" message appearing. This is transmitted, and is not a local reception problem. It suggests a reception problem at the site of uplink to the satellite.
A serious fire has forced live programming from CNN's London HQ, Turner House, to be suspended until further notice. The fire, above a clothing department store on the adjacent Oxford Road - London's busiest shopping district - started just before 1900 bst (1800 gmt) Thursday. Half an hour later, World Business Today went on-air from the adjacent Turner House. However, this was quickly pulled off air as Atlanta took over live programming for the rest of the evening. Jim Clancy and Colleen McEdwards took turns with World Business Today, World News Europe and the evening edition of Business International.
Thirteen hours on, and fire crews are still on the scene tackling the blaze. All morning programming from Turner House in London has been suspended. CNN Today came from CNN Center this morning, with Michael Holmes and Jonathan Mann hosting. Mann also hosted Business International at 0700 gmt.
A large part of West-Central London has been cordoned off, with a quarter-mile exclusion zone in place until Saturday morning, according to Westminster City authorities. This area generally attracts between 250,000 to 500,000 shoppers a day. If the exclusion zone is a quarter-mile in each direction, then a large portion of Great Marlborough Street, where CNN London is based, is also included. Therefore, there is a chance that Turner House is currently empty. It is not known if the other networks to broadcast from Turner House, including the Cartoon Network and TCM, are affected.
There are fears that the building on fire may collapse. So far, there have been no reports of any injuries.
More here on CNN Observations as soon as it is available.
Update: I'm also hearing that the CNN London newsroom starting filling with smoke shortly after the fire started last night, and was therefore evacuated. I would imagine they'd have to turn off the air-conditioning/distribution in there to stop the smoke from coming in.
Additionally, Jonathan Mann is putting in quite a shift! He was live on Your World Today yesterday at around 12pm Eastern (1600 gmt). And then he was doing CNN Today at 12am Eastern (0400 gmt) this morning! He's still on right now, doing Business International until 7am Eastern (1100 gmt)!! I wonder if he's slept...
Latest CNN Documentary Reveals Life Behind the Camera in Iraq
CNN Pressroom - CNN International’s Michael Holmes Offers Reporter’s Perspective in Month of Mayhem
Only 10 minutes after arriving at CNN’s Baghdad bureau on Jan. 9, 2007, CNN International anchor Michael Holmes began reporting as a full-scale battle raged nearby in an upscale Sunni neighborhood. Thus opens Holmes’ intensely personal, behind-the-scenes account of life in Iraq through the eyes of a journalist. His resulting hour-long documentary, CNN: Special Investigations Unit – Month of Mayhem, will premiere on Saturday, May 12, and Sunday, May 13, at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. All times Eastern.
Throughout this assignment, Holmes and CNN photographers film what life is like for them working and living at CNN’s bureau outside of Baghdad’s Green Zone. This assignment marks Holmes’ eighth in Iraq since the onset of war there in 2003. In January 2004, Holmes survived an ambush on a two-vehicle convoy that left two CNN staffers dead and one wounded.
Putting human faces on the casualties of war, Holmes reports on the bombings in markets and at universities, the kidnapping and torture of Iraqi civilians, and attacks on military troops that occasionally come across as “routine” to viewers of nightly newscasts.
“One thing that annoys me about my own profession sometimes is that we sanitize things a little bit,” Holmes says in the documentary. “Necessarily, too. A lot of people don’t want to see these, or know these horrific things, but some things people need to know.
“It’s not pleasant to know, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t know,” he says later about the victims of torture and insurgent violence.
Holmes sensitively recounts the personal and professional difficulties of reporting on daily violence and despair, and how these challenges have intensified since the war began. He marvels at the bravery of the troops, describing how teenaged troops with a bit of downtime play video games indoors and how their demeanor rapidly matures when they must perform their official duties. Holmes also reveals the dignity and hospitality of Iraqi civilians trying to live and work under trying circumstances.
During the second day of Holmes’ current assignment, U.S. President George W. Bush announced a troop increase in Iraq. During what turned out to be one of the bloodiest months since war began in Iraq, more than 2,000 people were killed in hostile fighting or sectarian violence; of these causalities, 113 total coalition troops were killed, 108 of these were U.S. troops.
CNN: Special Investigations Unit – Month of Mayhem was produced by Sheri England and Jenni Watts. The vice president and senior executive producer of CNN Productions is Mark Nelson.
CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is one of the world’s most respected and trusted sources for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; four Web sites, including CNN.com, the first major news and information Web site; CNN Pipeline, CNN.com’s premium live video news service; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and partnerships for four television networks and two Web sites.
