CNN’s God’s Warriors Scores Prestigious George Foster Peabody Award

CNN Worldwide received a George Foster Peabody Award for CNN Presents: God’s Warriors, it was announced today by the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. For CNN’s 11th Peabody, the judges praised CNN’s chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour and the documentary for a detailed examination of the political influence of Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

“We are pleased that the Peabody panel has once again honored CNN with one of the most prestigious journalism awards in the industry,” said Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S. “This award pays tribute to the power and effectiveness of God’s Warriors to illuminate the intersection of politics, extremism and faith in each of these three religions. It also honors one of the world’s top journalists, Christiane Amanpour, as well as the award-winning producers from CNN’s documentary unit.”

For God’s Warriors, a three-part, six-hour television event aired across CNN’s U.S. and international networks in August 2007, Christiane Amanpour traveled to six countries to report this epic documentary.

A critical and ratings success, God’s Warriors was watched by approximately 15 million cumulative viewers in the U.S. The documentary was also honored with the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ inaugural Television Academy Honor, a National Headliner award and a Gracie Allen award among others.

The honor marks the 11th Peabody win for CNN for its journalistic excellence and the fourth win for Amanpour specifically. She won her first Peabody in 1993 for her distinctive reports from such crisis hot spots as Bosnia and Somalia and was personally cited again in 1998 for her international reports for both CNN and CBS’s 60 Minutes. In 1995, she was cited for her narration for the Discovery Channel’s Yugoslavia: Death of Nation.