Mr. Chris Cramer

Chris Cramer has more than 40 years experience in international broadcasting. He has led the world’s largest newsgathering organization at the BBC and developed the world’s most influential, profitable and widely distributed news channel, CNN International. While at the BBC, Cramer brought together the BBC’s huge radio and television newsgathering services into a single and powerful operation.At CNN, he helped the organization respond to the transition to digital broadcasting making CNN the leading news operator in the employment of video and cell phone newsgathering and broadcasting.

Few major news stories have passed without Cramer playing a central role, most notably the Falklands War, both Iraq Gulf Wars, the Lockerbie bombing, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Death of Princess Diana and most recently CNN’s coverage of the Asian Tsunami for which he won a coveted ‘DuPont Award’. In 2007 he was honored by NABA with a lifetime achievement award for his services to journalism. Chris Cramer is an advocate and authority on African Journalism having been president of the CNN African Journalism Competition for 11 years. He is President and a founding member of the International News Safety Institute (INSI) the global organization devoted to the ethical treatment and safety of journalists. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Television Society.

Cramer commits much of his time to bringing the industry together in order to ensure the protection and training of journalists who work in hostile environments while also unraveling its after-effects. Cramer’s book ‘Hostage’ is his first hand account of the 1980 London Iranian Embassy siege. He continues to write for newspapers and magazines about media matters. In 2002 he contributed to the UK’s Independent Television Commission’s (now OFCOM) study, “Television and Beyond: The Next 10Years.”