Ian Lee (journalist)

Ian James Lee (born 1984) is an American journalist based in Britain for CBS News.^[1][2] Prior to working for CBS, he worked for CNN, and, before that, Lee was also the multimedia editor at the Daily News Egypt from 2009 to 2011. During that time, he also was a freelance video journalist for Time Magazine and spent a year as a package producer for Reuters. Lee has covered the 2011 Arab Spring, Euromaidan, Sochi Winter Olympics, 2013 Egyptian coup d'état in Egypt, 2014 Gaza War, 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt, and 2017 North Korea crisis, among other things.

Ian Lee
Born	Ian James Lee 1984 (age 39–40) Lander, Wyoming, United States
Education	Arizona State University
Occupation	Journalist
Years active	2008–present
Spouse	Holly Dagres (2016-present)

Early life

Lee was born in Lander, Wyoming, USA. Lee graduated in 2007 from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University with a bachelor's degree in journalism, along with certificates in Islamic Studies and Arabic. He was accepted into an internship program funded by the Carnegie-Knight Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education a. In 2008, Lee received a Fulbright scholarship, among 12 Arizona State University graduates selected for a Fulbright that. He spent a year at American University in Cairo, Egypt, studying the reporting differences between newspapers written in English and those written in Arabic.^[3]

Career

Lee began working for CNN after a church bombing in Alexandria, Egypt, on New Year’s Eve 2010.^[4] One of Lee’s Tweets during the January 25 Revolution is cited in the book A Twitter Year: 365 Days in 140 Characters by Kate Bussmann.^[5] Lee's Tweets are also preserved in an archived collection maintained by the American University in Cairo's Rare Books and Special Collections Library as part of the blogs, Twitter feeds, local and regional media coverage, and other sites related to the January 25th Revolution.^[6] Lee is also quoted in News Now: Visual Storytelling in the Digital Age by Susan Green, Mark Lodato, B. William Silcock, and Carol Schwalbe.^[7]

While covering the Libyan Revolution of 2011, Lee was injured in Sirte by a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) that exploded next to him. It killed an ambulance driver and sent shrapnel into his leg.^[8][9]

During the 2013-15 detention of Al-Jazeera journalists by Egypt, CNN’s Lee reported several times on the Al Jazeera English news channel in a show of solidarity with the imprisoned journalists.^[10][11][12] Lee's coverage of the Al Jazeera trial is documented in the book, The Marriott Cell: An Epic Journey from Cairo's Scorpion Prison to Freedom by Mohamed Fahmy.^[13]

Lee was on board the Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas in the Atlantic Ocean to cover the solar eclipse of August 21, 2017. He was on Anderson Cooper 360° while experiencing totality on the cruise liner.^[14][15]

Awards

• 2008 – Fulbright Scholarship.^[16]
• 2011 – Emmy Award for Revolution in Egypt: President Mubarak Steps Down.^[17]
• 2011 – Investigative Reporters and Editors’ Tom Renner Award for Death in the Desert.^[18]
• 2011 – Peabody Award.

References

1. "Ian Lee". CBS New.
2. "Weddings: Holly Dagres, Ian Lee". The New York Times. 3 July 2016.
3. "Wyo native describes CNN correspondent life in Middle East". Wyoming Business Report. Archived from the original on 2016-08-14. Retrieved 2016-07-21.
4. "This is Ian Lee". Cairo Scene.
5. Bussmann, Kate (2011-11-21). A Twitter Year: 365 Days in 140 Characters. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781408829066.
6. "Archive-It – Egypt Revolution and Politics". archive-it.org. Retrieved 2017-05-28.
7. Susan Green; Mark Lodato, B. William Silcock and Carol Schwalbe (2011). News Now: Visual Storytelling in the Digital Age. AbeBooks. ISBN 978-0205695911.
8. "CNN journalist injured in attack near Sirte". CNN.
9. "CNN's Ian Lee thanks Lander for its support after injury suffered covering Libyan revolution". County 10.
10. "Trial of Al Jazeera staff adjourned in Egypt". Al Jazeera.
11. "Al Jazeera Reporters Are Banned In Egypt, So A CNN Journalist Reports For Them". The Huffington Post.
12. "CNN Correspondent Reports For Al Jazeera, Because AJ Reporters Aren't Allowed To". AdWeek.
13. Fahmy, Mohamed (2016). The Marriott Cell: An Epic Journey from Cairo's Scorpion Prison to Freedom. Random House Canada. ISBN 9780345816351.
14. "CNN reporter aboard cruise ship during totality". CNN. 21 August 2017.
15. "CNN anchor aboard cruise ship during totality". MSN.
16. "Two Cronkite Graduates Win Fulbrights". Arizona State University.
17. "Winners Announced For The 33rd Annual News & Documentary Emmy® Awards". The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Archived from the original on 2020-09-29. Retrieved 2016-07-21.
18. "2011 IRE Award winners". Investigative Reporters and Editors. Archived from the original on 2020-11-11. Retrieved 2017-06-12.