Ben Wedeman is a CNN senior international correspondent based in Rome.
13 Facts About Ben Wedeman
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Ben Wedeman has been with the network since 1994 and has earned multiple Emmy Awards and Edward R Murrow Awards for team reporting.
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Ben Wedeman's mother, Martha Jean Wedeman was a reporter for The Washington Post.
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Ben Wedeman's father served in Ivory Coast and Syria working for USAID.
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Ben Wedeman attended boarding schools in Beirut, Lebanon ; Tangier, Morocco; and Windsor, Connecticut.
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Ben Wedeman graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor's degree in Asiatic Languages and Linguistics in 1982 and from the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies with a master's degree in Middle Eastern Studies.
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From 1988 to 1992, Ben Wedeman was based in Aleppo, Syria, and worked as a communications specialist for the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas.
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Ben Wedeman was eventually appointed as CNN's Bureau Chief in Amman.
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From 1998 to 2006, Ben Wedeman was CNN's bureau chief in Cairo, where he led CNN's coverage of the uprising against then-President Hosni Mubarak as well as the wider unrest in the Middle East.
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In October 2000, Ben Wedeman was shot in the back while covering a clash between Palestinians and Israelis near the Karni border crossing between Gaza and Israel.
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Ben Wedeman was the only Western journalist granted access for an interview with Uday Hussein.
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Outside of the Middle East, Ben Wedeman has traveled to war zones in Afghanistan, the Balkans, and Africa.
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Since 2023, Ben Wedeman is a recurrent guest of Che tempo che fa, a talk show aired on Italian TV channel NOVE, owned by Warner Bros Discovery.