Deborah Amos
Deborah Amos covers the Middle East for NPR News. Her reports can be heard on NPR's award-winning Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition.
In 2009, Amos won the Edward Weintal Prize for Diplomatic Reporting from Georgetown University and in 2010 was awarded the Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award by Washington State University. Amos was part of a team of reporters who won a 2004 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for coverage of Iraq. A Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 1991-1992, Amos returned to Harvard in 2010 as a Shorenstein Fellow at the Kennedy School.
In 2003, Amos returned to NPR after a decade in television news, including ABC's Nightline and World News Tonight, and the PBS programs NOW with Bill Moyers and Frontline.
When Amos first came to NPR in 1977, she worked first as a director and then a producer for Weekend All Things Considered until 1979. For the next six years, she worked on radio documentaries, which won her several significant honors. In 1982, Amos received the Prix Italia, the Ohio State Award, and a DuPont-Columbia Award for "Father Cares: The Last of Jonestown," and in 1984 she received a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for "Refugees."
From 1985 until 1993, Amos spend most of her time at NPR reporting overseas, including as the London Bureau Chief and as an NPR foreign correspondent based in Amman, Jordan. During that time, Amos won several awards, including a duPont-Columbia Award and a Breakthru Award, and widespread recognition for her coverage of the Gulf War in 1991.
A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Amos is also the author of Eclipse of the Sunnis: Power, Exile, and Upheaval in the Middle East (Public Affairs, 2010) and Lines in the Sand: Desert Storm and the Remaking of the Arab World (Simon and Schuster, 1992).
Amos is a Ferris Professor at Princeton, where she teaches journalism during the fall term.
Amos began her career after receiving a degree in broadcasting from the University of Florida at Gainesville.
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Syria's political opposition is meeting in Istanbul this week to choose a rebel government, despite opposition from the Obama administration. The vote has been postponed twice because of internal tensions over naming a rival government to Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime. -
Islamist brigades are competing with pro-democracy civilians to shape Syria's future. In many areas in rebel-held northern Syria, Islamists have set up religious courts that deliver rulings under Shariah, or Islamic law. -
A 28-year-old computer wizard known as the Harvester, along with his online rebel friends, have hacked into a pro-regime TV station as part of their ongoing battle against the government's electronic army.
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In a rare test of democracy, a soft-spoken, 31-year-old aid worker won a seat on the Aleppo provincial council in a vote held on March 3 in neighboring Turkey. Abdul Rahman Kahir won top votes for his work organizing aid distributions in the Syrian city. -
Syrian rebels have captured a provincial capital, Raqqa, in the north of the country. The Syrian government has responded with airstrikes, which has set off an exodus of refugees heading to the Turkish border. -
Aleppo, Syria, is holding the first free elections for 25 city council seats and 26 provincial council seats. This election is far from perfect, but those involved say they want to set an example for other Syrian towns. -
Secular activists launched the uprising in Syria two years ago, but ultraconservative Muslims are becoming a more potent force as the war grinds on. The sides have little in common besides their opposition to President Bashar Assad's government. -
Refugee numbers are swelling again in southern Turkey due to a heavy Syrian army offensive in central Syria. Humanitarian aid groups are becoming overwhelmed. -
Researchers are using data from Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other social media sites. There are, however, questions about the accuracy of the reports coming from Syria. -
Many Syrian children have lost family members and are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Even those who have fled into neighboring Turkey have not been able to leave the trauma behind.
