Lucia Newman
| Lucia Newman | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Lucia Newman February 18, 1952 London |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Notable credit(s) | Maria Moors Cabot prize from Columbia University |
| Spouse(s) | Demetrio Olaciregui |
| Children | Pia and Laura (Laurita) |
Lucia Newman (born February 18, 1952 in London) is a broadcast journalist, currently working for Al Jazeera English. Previously, she was a long-standing reporter for CNN.
Career
Awards and acclaim
In 1991, she received the Maria Moors Cabot prize from Columbia University for contributing to "the advancement of press freedom and inter-American understanding".[1]
In March 1997, Newman became the first United States journalist in 27 years to have permanent residence in Cuba.[2]
The North-South Institute praised her reporting and wrote that because she knows several languages, "she can find out things others cannot". Newman is fluent in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French. However, after Newman's first news broadcast, Ninoska Pérez Castellón criticized her for not[?] interviewing people who were against the Cuban government. Pérez wanted Newman to show Cuba as a "normal place", not a "rogue nation".[2]
CNN
Newman worked for CNN for 20 years and reported from countries throughout Latin America.
In 1987, she was in Panama, and on September 16,[3] the Panama government expelled her from the country after a mob saw her grinning during an interview with Manuel Noriega.[4] Noriega called her a "disinformer".[5]
She was a correspondent in Nicaragua during 1985 to 1989 and in Chile from 1989 to 1993.[6] From 1993 to 1997, she was the head of bureau in Mexico.[6]
Al Jazeera English
In 2006, she left CNN for Al Jazeera English, in the run-up to its launch. She has been with the channel ever since.[6][7] She is now the Latin America editor, based in Buenos Aires in Argentina, but also continues to appear regularly on-air.
In 2013 alone, she has conducted studio-interviews, for the series Talk to Al Jazeera, with the President of Uruguay and the former President of Chile and has presented, for the series Al Jazeera Correspondent, an extended piece of reportage on the curious institution that is the Colonia Dignidad, as well as conventional news-reporting, as a correspondent in several countries, plus live studio-links.
Personal life
Early life
Newman was born on February 18, 1952 in London, of US and Chilean parentage.[8] Her parents had met in Moscow: her mother, Lucia, was Santiago's consul-general in Moscow, and her father was the American journalist Joseph Newman, who usually worked from Cuba for the New York Herald Tribune.[9]
Both parents eventually had to leave Yosif Stalin's Russia: her father, because of a "Stalinist crackdown on the Western press" and her mother, because Chile severed its diplomatic connections with the Soviet Union. They traveled to western Europe and the younger Lucia was born in London. However, the family moved to the United States soon after, spending time in New York and Washington, D.C. In June 1959, her first-grade teacher commented in Lucia's report card, "Lucia loves stories almost as much as she enjoys telling stories for our group."[8]
Education
Newman said in an interview, "I didn't consider myself of a particular nationality;" in the United States, she felt like a "foreigner." During her holidays, she spent much of her vacation in Chile with her large extended family.[8] Upon graduating high school, she studied journalism at the University of Chile in Santiago. After General Augusto Pinochet's coup d'état on 11 September 1973, Newman discovered that her professors and colleagues started to vanish.
Calling this "scary, no, terrifying," Newman moved to Australia, where she landed a job at the Australian Embassy serving as a Spanish–English translator. The University of New South Wales accepted her "tuition-free" as a student.[8] In April 1979,[8] she received a bachelor's degree in communication from the University of New South Wales.
Family
Newman is married to the Panamian official and documentary-maker, Demetrio Olaciregui. They have two daughters, Pia and Laura (Laurita). For some time, the family has been based in Argentina, but Newman's career and peripatetic upbringing militate against that move being considered definitive.[9]
References
- ↑ "4 Journalists Are Winners of Cabot Prizes". The New York Times. 1991-10-31. Archived from the original on 2009-10-22. Retrieved 2009-10-12.
- 1 2 Baker, Donald P. (1997-03-20). "Their Woman in Havana". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2009-10-22. Retrieved 2009-10-12.
- ↑ Human rights in Panama. New York: Human Rights Watch. 1988. p. 38. ISBN 0-938579-61-4. Retrieved 2009-10-12.
- ↑ Zuckerman, Laurence; Kane, Joseph J. newspaper=Time (1988-06-06). "Press: The Global Village Tunes In". Archived from the original on 2009-10-22.
- ↑ "Headlines around the world". USA Today. 1987-09-17. Archived from the original on 2009-10-22. Retrieved 2009-10-12.
- 1 2 3 "Al Jazeera International ropes in two former CNN journalists Lucia Newman & Mariana Sanchez". Indiantelevision.com. 2006-03-30. Archived from the original on 2009-10-22. Retrieved 2009-10-12.
- ↑ "Al Jazeera hires CNN's Newman". Los Angeles Times. 2006-03-30. Archived from the original on 2009-10-22. Retrieved 2009-10-12.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Rosenburg, Carol (1997-02-25). "CNN's New Cuba Correspondent; Some Worry that Lucia Newman Won't Report Freely From Island, But Journalist's Main Concerns Are Finding a Home, School for the Kids". The Miami Herald. Archived from the original on 2012-03-24. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
- 1 2 Kloer, Phil (1997-08-25). "CNN reporter embraces Havana". Tampa Tribune. Archived from the original on 2012-03-24. Retrieved 2012-03-24.