THEY WANT TO WORK

Clarissa Ward
War
correspondent, CNN
Photograph by MARK MANN
“ISIS cannot be contained with only a military strategy.
It’s the ideology that is spreading like wildfire. You have
to find a better way to counter their narrative.”
MEDIA PEOPLE
By Alexandra Steigrad
Clarissa Ward is in New York from her base in London
to talk to her U.S. colleagues about her recent
six-day trip to Syria, which took six months
to plan. The 36-year-old CNN war correspondent
darts through the newsroom in high heels and full
makeup to do quick on-air interviews. As soon
as she’s off camera, Ward admits that she’s more
comfortable in combat boots and a flak jacket. Ward, who won a
Peabody in 2012, is perhaps best known for her reporting on Syria
for CBS, which she left last fall. While working at CBS, she snuck
into the war-ravaged Middle Eastern country alone, posing as a
tourist. With a small camera, she covertly shot her own video. At
one point, she was taken blindfolded to meet members of the Free
Syrian Army. Ward’s footage shows her interviewing a coterie of machine-gun-carrying
military defectors whose faces are concealed
by scarves. Ward didn’t go alone on the most recent trip for CNN
— she brought along a female producer, although she wouldn’t say
how they got in. Both women worked with a freelance filmmaker
on the ground. Here, Ward talks about why it’s preferable to be a
female reporter in the Middle East, how attacks on fellow journalists
like Lara Logan have influenced the way she does her job, and
how Vice has impacted broadcast journalism.
How many times have you been to Syria and
what has changed there since your last trip?
This was, like, my 14th trip. The situation in Syria
continues to get worse and worse. I was very frustrated
with essentially looking at these grainy You-
Tube videos of what was happening on the ground
and having to communicate through Skype interviews
to try to get a better sense of how the Russian
intervention in the Syrian conflict was playing out
on the ground. We knew that the bombardment
was relentless, but we didn’t have stories from the
inside because it was so dangerous for journalists
to go there. I spent six months trying to figure out
how I could go, and then I went. It was less than 24
hours before I saw an air strike on a fruit market,
which brought home just how bad the situation
really was. I think it’s a little bit better now since
the cessation of hostilities started, and obviously
encouraging that the Russians are withdrawing — or
saying that they are going to withdraw.
Do you think they will withdraw?
I’m highly skeptical. I do think that they have a
number of valid reasons for wanting to withdraw.
This is a very expensive conflict and their economy
is in the tank right now. Energy prices are really low.
Sanctions are hitting them pretty hard. I also think
that they learned some lessons from Afghanistan.
They don’t want to get dragged into an endless war
that they can’t necessarily win. At the same time, do
I think this will be a complete withdrawal? No.
What are people on the ground saying?
It’s just an absolute deal-breaker that [Syrian president]
Bashar al-Assad has to go. There can be no
peace, no agreement until it is understood that he
steps down in some capacity. Part of the problem that
you have as well is that the people representing the
opposition in Geneva are not necessarily a reflection
of the people on the ground. So you have this disconnect
with the people who are fighting and dying
on the ground and the people who are hammering
out deals in five-star hotels in Geneva. What a shock.
How do your Syrian sources view the political
climate in the U.S.?
They are definitely interested in it, insofar as it
may have huge ramifications or impact for them in
the future. But I think that their primary feeling with
regard to America is bitterness. They feel that they’ve
been left to die. That basically America handed over
Syria to Russia and they said, “You guys work it out.”
When you see courthouses, hospitals and schools ►
20 APRIL 2016, No. 1 WWD.COM
WWD.COM APRIL 2016, No. 1 21