Amanpour

TONIGHT: At least 24 dead in tornado

Christiane looks into why tornadoes repeatedly hit this particular region of the United States

Christiane looks into why tornadoes repeatedly hit this particular region of the United States

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Check showtimes to see when the program airs on CNN where you are. Or watch online.

Killing the messenger, when journalists become targets

February 22nd, 2013
05:41 PM ET

By Claire Calzonetti, CNN

For generations journalists have risked their lives and given their lives – covering wars, human disasters and uncovering dark and ugly crimes.

Over the past several years the targets of these stories have increasingly turned their guns on the truth-seekers: the journalists.

Exactly one year ago veteran foreign correspondent Marie Colvin – a legend in journalism – was killed by a shelling attack in Syria. French photographer Remi Ochlik was killed alongside her.

British photographer Paul Conroy, who survived that attack, says he is sure they were specifically targeted.

The Committee to Protect Journalists says 70 journalists were killed in 2012, a 49% increase from the previous year.

232 journalists are imprisoned around the world and 35 are missing.

A new campaign called "A Day Without News" is trying to raise awareness and bring penalties to those who target journalists.

One of the leading voices in that campaign belongs to New York Times photographer Lynsey Addario.

In the video above CNN’s Christiane Amanpour speaks with Addario about the campaign and discusses how she and three of her colleagues were abducted while covering the Libyan revolution and held for six terrifying days.


Filed under:  Latest Episode

Gay Americans forced to choose between love and country

February 22nd, 2013
12:51 PM ET

By Mick Krever & Claire Calzonetti, CNN

Love or country – it’s a decision many gay Americans with foreign partners are forced to make.

It may seem counterintuitive; in the past few years, a wave of American states have legalized gay marriage.

But because of a 1996 federal law, the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal government does not recognize those unions.

The result is that a heterosexual American can sponsor his or her partner for U.S. visa, but a gay American cannot.

Rather than break the law or split up, many gay couples are leaving American shores.

That was precisely the situation that Brandon Perlberg found himself in when his British partner, Benn Storey, who had been in the U.S. legally on temporary visas, was told it was unlikely he would ever obtain a green card to stay.

The couple had lived in New York for seven years, but upended their lives and moved to the United Kingdom to stay together.

“We never considered separating,” Storey told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour from London on Thursday.

“We had always thought that this was going to be our backup plan,” his partner, Perlberg, added. “At the beginning of last year, it became certain that if we did not move now, we really faced the risk of being indefinitely separated. And that wasn't a risk we were willing to face.”

In New York, Perlberg had been a practicing attorney. But his expertise in New York and American law was not valued in London, and he struggled to find a job.

“That was one of the most difficult parts of this process for me,” he said. “I spent eleven months hemorrhaging financially, burning through savings and going on interviews.”

President Obama has made immigration overhaul a top priority for his second term. Part of his proposal is to recognize, for the first time ever, gay partnerships when evaluating visa applications.

Perlberg, the American, said he is conflicted about his feelings for the U.S.

“On the one hand,” he said, “I love my country and I've never felt more personally attached and involved in its future as I do right now, as there's a debate going on as to immigration and a debate going on as to same-sex marriage. At the same time, I cannot shake this feeling of resentment that I have, that our lives were taken away from us.”

Unlike many intra-national gay couples forced to choose between love and country, they had a fallback, because Storey happened to be from a country, the U.K., that allows gay citizens to bring in their foreign partners.

“We are very much the lucky ones,” Storey said. “There are people who have no option but to go back to their home country and separate from their partner.”

READ MORE: Why is Uganda attacking homosexuality?


Filed under:  Gay Rights • Latest Episode