Octavia Nasr
| Octavia Nasr | |
|---|---|
| Born |
March 13, 1966 Beirut, Lebanon |
| Occupation | journalist |
Octavia Nasr (Arabic: اوكتافيا نصر) (born 13 March 1966) is a Lebanese-American journalist who covers Middle Eastern affairs. She served as CNN’s Senior Editor of Mideast affairs for over 20 years. She was fired from CNN in July 2010 due to a Twitter posting related to cleric Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah.
Nasr was born and raised in Lebanon to a Christian family originally from Palestine.
For more than 20 years, Nasr covered major stories involving the Middle East, as an on-air and off-air expert for CNN’s global platforms. Her work at the network started just after Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait where she coordinated network coverage of the Gulf War as part of CNN’s international assignment desk. Nasr won an Overseas Press Club Award in 2002. In 2003, she managed a 15-member Arab desk which coordinated coverage of the Iraq war and was executive producer of CNN's Arab Voices.
She is the recipient of the 2006 Excellence in Journalism award from the Lebanese-American Chamber of Commerce and was awarded CNN World Report’s 2003 Achievement Award. She received the Edward R. Murrow for Continuing Coverage of the 2006 war in Lebanon; and the Golden Cable ACE Award in 1993 for CNN’s coverage of the Gulf War.
Following the death of Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah on July 4, 2010, Nasr tweeted on the same day that she was, "Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah.. One of Hezbollah's giants I respect a lot..."
Nasr was criticized for this perceived show of sympathy and support for Hezbollah amid claims that her stated position was incompatible with her role at CNN as editor of news on the Middle East.
In response to reactions to her comment, Nasr wrote on July 6 an explanation of what she meant with her tweet.
I used the words "respect" and "sad" because to me as a Middle Eastern woman, Fadlallah took a contrarian and pioneering stand among Shia clerics on woman's rights. He called for the abolition of the tribal system of "honor killing." He called the practice primitive and non-productive. He warned Muslim men that abuse of women was against Islam.
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