CNN Press Room

CNN celebrates the power of girls in 'Girl Rising' and 'A Girl's World'

soniacnn — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:00:47 +0000

New programming featuring inspiring stories of girls around the globe launches in June on CNN International

CNN International today announced a new slate of programming focused on the empowerment of young girls around the world with the premiere of critically-acclaimed film, ‘Girl Rising’ and launch of ‘A Girl’s World’, a distinctive new series chronicling the lives of seven girls in seven countries.

‘Girl Rising’, filmed before the well-known girls’ education campaigner Malala Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban on her way home from school in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, follows several girls across the globe as they pursue an education.

Like Malala, these girls – who come from Afghanistan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Haiti, Nepal, Peru and Sierra Leone – fight to overcome impossible odds to realise their dreams.

Directed by Academy Award nominee Richard E. Robbins, the two-hour film features voice performances by Academy Award winners Cate Blanchett (Haiti), Anne Hathaway (Afghanistan) and Meryl Streep (Ethiopia), in addition to Salma Hayek (Peru), Chloë Moretz (Egypt), Selena Gomez (Sierra Leone) and Kerry Washington (Nepal).

‘Girl Rising’ premieres on CNN International on Saturday 22 June at 2000 BST / 2100 CET and Sunday 23 June at 0200 BST / 0300 CET and 1400 BST / 1500 CET.

Leading up to the premiere, CNN Digital is offering special coverage of the film along with stories on the power of education at www.CNN.com/girlrising. Online and on mobile, users can find op-eds, photos, videos, original reporting and behind-the-scenes articles about the film. On 16 June, an online viewer’s guide for each of the girls featured in the film will be published, as well as a live blog encouraging conversation. CNN Digital will also publish open letters from influential women on the importance of education to empower girls around the world. CNN iReport, the network’s global participatory community, will invite readers to write their own letters. In addition, CNN.com/girlrising will highlight ways for the audience to take action and help girls’ education in their own communities and around the world.

“’Girl Rising’ tells an incredibly important story that highlights the critical role education plays in the empowerment of young girls,” says Mike McCarthy, senior vice president of programming for CNN International. “In ‘A Girl’s World,’ viewers get an intimate look at the unique challenges and opportunities this generation of girls face on a daily basis. Their stories are revealing, surprising and worth sharing with the world.”

Starting 24 June, ‘A Girl’s World’ introduces seven new girls from Argentina, Germany, Hong Kong, Pakistan, South Africa, Turkey and the United States, all with untold – yet familiar – stories.

Airing over the coming months in Connect the World at 2100 BST / 2200 CET; International Desk at 0600 BST / 0700 CET; CNN NewsCenter with Monita Rajpal at 1130 BST / 1230 CET and CNN Newsroom live from Hong Kong at 0000 BST / 0100 CET, ‘A Girl’s World’ explores education, culture, environment, community, faith and family through the eyes of these 16-year-old girls.

Equipped with handheld cameras, these girls tell their stories in their own words, providing viewers with an inside look at their motivations, obstacles and dreams. While their lives might be different, they have much in common.

‘A Girl’s World’ culminates with a special week of programming on CNNI leading up to the United Nations-declared International Day of the Girl, on 11 October.

In addition, CNN Digital is planning extensive coverage of ‘A Girl’s World’ online at www.cnn.com/international, offering users an engaging look at the narratives of each girl while weaving them all together for an impactful look at the girls’ education movement around the world.

ENDS

For more information, please contact:

Joel Brown

Senior Press Officer

CNN Europe, Middle East & Africa

Tel: + 44 20 7693 0967

joel.brown@turner.com

About ‘Girl Rising’ and the 10×10 Campaign

‘Girl Rising’ is the centrepiece of 10×10, a global social action campaign to promote girls’ education. 10×10 was founded by award-winning journalists at the Documentary Group and Vulcan Productions, along with strategic partner, Intel Corporation. CNN is the global broadcast partner for ‘Girl Rising”’, which is the first documentary acquired by CNN Films.

About CNN International

CNN’s portfolio of news and information services is available in five different languages across all major TV, internet and mobile platforms reaching more than 375 million households around the globe. CNN International, awarded “News Channel of the Year” by the Royal Television Society in March 2013, is the number one international TV news channel according to all major media surveys across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the Asia Pacific region and Latin America. The CNN digital network is consistently one of the top news and current affairs destination on the web. CNN has 45 editorial offices and more than 1,100 affiliates worldwide through CNN Newsource. CNN International is part of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company.

Brian Todd: Moore mayor confirmed school funding played a role in lack of tornado shelters for children

jdargan — Tue, 21 May 2013 23:10:35 +0000

From Moore, Oklahoma, CNN's Brian Todd spoke with CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour about why a lack of tornado safe rooms for public schools apparently has played a role in the casualties for some children.

Todd attended a press briefing with the Mayor of Moore earlier today who was asked to confirm that some of the children that perished did so in schools without safe rooms. Although schools do have drills for weather emergencies, the mayor acknowledged that funding played a role in recent years to not build safe rooms for public schools.

AMANPOUR airs daily on CNN International at 3:00pm and 5:00pm Eastern. The full transcript for this program may be found here.

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CNN coverage: deadly Oklahoma tornado

bridgetleininger — Tue, 21 May 2013 03:30:44 +0000

Rescue workers raced against time and the oncoming night Monday looking for survivors after a powerful tornado blasted an area outside of Oklahoma City, leveling homes and killing at least 51 people.

CNN's coverage includes correspondents George Howell, Nick Valencia and Gary Tuchman already in the Oklahoma City area, with Chad Myers and Indra Petersons contributing from CNN's Severe Weather Center in Atlanta. Chris Cuomo, John Berman, Jake Tapper, Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, Sanjay Gupta, Pam Brown, Stephanie Elam, Erin McPike, Brian Todd, Ed Lavandera, Kyung Lah and John King will report and broadcast from the Oklahoma City area. Gustavo Valdes and Fernando del Rincon report from Oklahoma for CNN en Espanol.

CNN.com will be updating the breaking news blog www.cnn.com/thisjustin.

ABC News' Jonathan Karl addresses criticism on reporting of the Benghazi talking points controversy

jdargan — Sun, 19 May 2013 15:14:14 +0000

On the Sunday, May 19 edition of CNN's Reliable Sources, host Howard Kurtz read a statement from Jonathan Karl, chief White House Correspondent for ABC News in response to his reporting on altered emails related to the Sunday talk show talking points following the attacks on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya in September 2012. Karl now expresses regret about his original reporting on May 10th on the Benghazi emails. The statement reads:

“Clearly, I regret the email was quoted incorrectly and I regret that it’s become a distraction from the story, which still entirely stands. I should have been clearer about the attribution. We updated our story immediately.”

-Jonathan Karl, ABC News Chief White House Correspondent

Reliable Sources with Howard Kurtz airs Sundays on CNN at 11:00am Eastern.

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Inside President's 53 percent approval rating...continuing partisan divide

jdargan — Sun, 19 May 2013 14:11:35 +0000

On CNN's STATE OF THE UNION with CANDY CROWLEY, Crowley unpacked the results inside the new CNN/ORC poll results released this morning to reveal a continuing partisan divide in how American's view the President's job performance. While 87 percent of Democrats approve of how the President is handling his job, 15 percent of Republicans view his job performance favorably, and 47 percent of Independents view the President's job performance favorably.

CNN/ORC POLL

May 17-18

Approve of how Obama is handling His Job as President

Democrats 87%

Independents 47%

Republicans 15%

Sampling error +/- 6.5% points

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New CNN/ORC poll finds President's approval rating to be 53 percent, with 45 percent disapproval

jdargan — Sun, 19 May 2013 13:19:35 +0000

In a new CNN/ORC poll, despite this week’s challenges, President Barack Obama’s approval rating is now at 53 percent, with 45 percent disapproving of the job that he is doing as president. However, most Americans also take very seriously all three concerns that were raised last week - Benghazi, the IRS, and the AP subpoenas - and most say that Republicans in Congress are not overreacting to these issues.

1. Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president?

App- Disapp- No

rove rove opinion

May 17-18, 2013 53% 45% 2%

April 5-7, 2013 51% 47% 3%

March 15-17, 2013 47% 50% 3%

Jan. 14-15, 2013 55% 43% 2%

Dec. 17-18, 2012 52% 43% 4%

Nov. 16-18, 2012 52% 43% 5%

Nov. 2-4, 2012 51% 45% 4%

For additional results of this poll, please visit CNN.com/ticker

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Anderson Cooper Special Report: Back to Boston – Moments of Impact

jdargan — Fri, 17 May 2013 21:06:16 +0000

This week marked one month since the tragic bombings at the 2013 Boston Marathon. CNN's Anderson Cooper and Randi Kaye host an evocative documentary look at the iconic still photographs that vividly captured the unexplainable – images that portraying the horror and the heroism of the events.

Kaye meets the photographers of the most memorable images and interviews them about the stories behind the images and the people who they have immortalized on film.

Anderson Cooper Special Report: Back to Boston – Moments of Impact debuts Friday, May 17 at 10:00pm and 1:00am. It encores Saturday, May 18 at 8:00pm and 11:00pm. All times Eastern.

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CNN Exclusive: Mario Balotelli – I was unfairly treated in England

laurencone — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:55:25 +0000

In an exclusive interview with CNN's Pedro Pinto (@pedrocnn), AC Milan striker Mario Balotelli says he believes he was treated unfairly in England.

Highlights

On England:
“I’m out from England, I’m happy that I’m out from England. That’s it.”

On his lifestyle:
“Women,I think is normal. Cars? I like fast cars and I don’t see the problem if I like fast cars.”

On the UK media:
“The stuff that they said in the newspaper that I did in England in the past, a few of those are real. The others are really just the imagination of the journalists.”

Full transcript after the jump.

***PLEASE CREDIT CNN WORLD SPORT***

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Pedro Pinto, CNN World Sport anchor: You’ve been here a few months now. Tell me how you feel about being back home.

Mario Balotelli, AC Milan forward: Yeah, I’m really happy now. I have my family near me and my friends. I can relax and find my privacy, more than in England, where I was alone..

PP: You do a lot of things that aren’t so normal for a lot of other football players. You make a lot of headlines with your personal life and your private life……does that get tiring?

MB: The stuff that they said in the newspaper that I did in England in the past, a few of those are real. The others are really just the imagination of the journalists. But when you create an icon of a person in that kind of way, after everyone thinks you are like this and if you lie about it, everyone just thinks that it is all true. So maybe that’s why they think I’m crazy and do crazy things? Sometimes I dream to be alone and that nobody would talk to me. But I understand that football is really important and that everybody watches it. When you’re famous you have to do photos or autographs, especially for the kids.

PP: Do you think you were unfairly treated in England?

MB: Yes. But I’m not here to talk about if I’m unfairly treated. I don’t care. I’m out from England, I’m happy that I’m out from England. That’s it.

PP: You’ve made the headlines for other things apart from football, do you regret doing anything in your career?

MB: Women, I think is normal. Cars? I like fast cars and I don’t see the problem if I like fast cars. Some things have happened in my life, some stuff unfortunately happen and they went on the newspapers straight away. But I don’t see anything that would make people think that I’m bad or I’m crazy. I’m a normal guy.

PP: Do you think that some people have a bad image of you or a negative image of you and that’s not who you really are?

MB: Of course, even if you’re the best in the world then some people don’t like you and some people like you. It depends. What is important for me is that the people who know me for real know Mario how he really is. People who don’t know me, they read newspapers and they watch TV. TV is made to give a lot of opinions……so I can’t show the real Mario to everybody.

PP: How would you describe yourself then?

MB: Normal! (Laughs)

END

Former abductee to Cleveland kidnap victims: "Savor this joyous feeling as long as possible"

laurencone — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:13:27 +0000

Natascha Kampusch, who was just 10 years old when she was abducted while walking to school in Vienna, Austria, speaks exclusively to CNN’s senior international correspondent Matthew Chance (@mchancecnn) about her ordeal, and what advice she has for the Cleveland, Ohio kidnap victims.

Kampusch takes CNN to the place in Vienna where she was held captive for eight years until escaping in 2006 at age 18.

On the three kidnap victims in Cleveland:
“"I thought to myself, I am very happy for the three women, and thank God they had survived their ordeal. And that they are certainly very strong women…they should really try to savor this joyous feeling as long as possible, and to avoid letting themselves be pushed back into everyday life too soon."

Stephanie Elam Joins CNN as Los Angeles based Correspondent

cljones1 — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:55:20 +0000

Stephanie Elam will join CNN as a correspondent based in Los Angeles, it was announced today by Terence Burke, vice president of newsgathering for CNN/U.S.

Elam returns to CNN from KNBC in Los Angeles where she served as a weekend evening anchor and general assignment reporter. During her tenure at KNBC, her reporting centered around emergency awareness, empowering Southern Californians with information to be earthquake ready, water safety and informed about money matters. She covered the release of John Smith, a man jailed 18 years for a crime he did not commit; the 2012 Golden Globes red carpet; and she anchored KNBC 's breaking news coverage of the Seal Beach murders.

“Stephanie is an excellent communicator and tenacious reporter, and we are pleased to have her back as a part of the CNN family,” said Burke.

Before KNBC, Elam was a business news correspondent for CNN based in New York, where she also reported for HLN and CNN International. Elam covered a myriad of stories from the worst financial period in decades to the death of Michael Jackson during her time at CNN from 2003 to 2011.

Elam is a graduate of Howard University with a degree in broadcast journalism.

CNN Worldwide is a portfolio of two dozen news and information services across cable, satellite, radio, wireless devices and the Internet in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. Domestically, CNN reaches more individuals on television, the web and mobile devices than any other cable TV news organization in the United States; internationally, CNN is the most widely distributed news channel reaching more than 271 million households abroad; and CNN Digital is a top network for online news, mobile news and social media. Additionally, CNN Newsource is the world’s most extensively utilized news service partnering with hundreds of local and international news organizations around the world. CNN is division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company.

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Contact:

Christal Jones 404.878.0285 christal.jones@turner.com @joneschristal