A master class on interviewing

Thank you, Christiane Amanpour

Long-time international journalist Christiane Amanpour recently interviewed Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s foreign minister, and you can watch the CNN broadcast here.

Unlike so many broadcast interviews (I focus on them because those are the ones we can see or hear for ourselves), Amanpour did not let the foreign minister off the hook, and when he lied, she called him on it. Every. Single. Time. The interview starts with Amanpour’s questioning Iran’s human rights policies, and she focused on the death of Mahsa Amini, died in September while in police custody for not wearing her hijab properly. That death was reported by Iranian reporters — Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi — who have since been jailed for their work.

I got the sense that Amanpour was asking questions for them and for the rest of us.

On different occasions, she incredulously asked the ministers if he was serious when he insisted his country is a practicing democracy. She asked about alleged rape of women who’ve been arrested for protesting. She countered his characterization of what he meant by “peaceful protests,” and refused to let him off the hook when he tried to lie.

You can read more about her career here.