
HKS COMMENCEMENT SPECIAL EDITION Award-winning international journalist and interviewer Christiane Amanpour developed her philosophy of journalism—which favors the pursuit of objective truth over neutrality—while covering events like the bloody siege of Sarajevo and Serbian ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. “People don't understand that objectivity actually means pursuing the truth,” she says. “But you get there by giving all sides a hearing, which doesn't mean treating all sides equally—then you are an accomplice in these extreme situations.” She also says that good journalism and democracy are inextricably linked, and that journalists and the public must speak out when either are threatened. Amanpour was this year’s Class Day speaker at the Harvard Kennedy School Commencement, arriving at the University at a tumultuous time, as the Trump administration has attacked both Harvard and major news organizations in ways she says echo authoritarian regimes she’s covered over the years. The da...
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