Christine Ockrent


Christine Ockrent is a Belgian journalist whose career has principally centered on French television.
She interviewed Amir Abbas Hoveyda, the former Iranian prime minister, in Evin prison after the Islamic revolution in 1979.
It was the last interview with Hoveyda before his execution.

Early life

Ockrent was born in Brussels, Belgium, daughter of Belgian diplomat Roger Ockrent.
She attended the Cours Hattemer, a private school in Paris. She graduated from the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris in 1965.

Career

She worked for American television and collaborated on 60 Minutes, the CBS news magazine. Back in France, she worked on Europe 1, a national radio station where she was in charge of morning news. In 1981, she became the first female anchor of the 8 pm news on the Antenne 2 television channel. Afterwards, she worked for TF1. By the end of her career, she had returned to France 2 as anchor of the evening news, and then for France 3 since 1990 where she was the host of different news magazines.
She was chief of the L'Express editorial office. For over a decade she presented :fr:France Europe Express|France Europe Express, a TV show about European issues. She is a fervent supporter of a united Europe, she proved so by signing the Soros call for a federal answer to the crisis of the euro.
Ockrent held the number two post at the Société de l'audiovisuel extérieur de la France, until she was relieved in May 2011. She refused to resign, saying that she had had to endure "nine months of manoeuvres that have sullied my honour and reputation".
She is a former member of the Saint-Simon Foundation think-tank.
In 2002, Ockrent wrote the preface to Ma guerre à L'indifference, a book by United Nations official Jean-Sélim Kanaan. She is the author of more than a dozen works including:
La Double vie d'Hillary Clinton, Robert Laffont
Les Oligarques : le système Poutine, Robert Laffont
Le Prince mystère de l'Arabie. Mohammed Ben Salman, les mirages d'un pouvoir absolu, Robert Laffont.

Other activities

Ockrent is the life partner of Bernard Kouchner, a French politician and the former foreign minister, with whom she had a son, Alexandre, born 11 March 1986.