CBS News correspondent Clarissa Ward has only been at the network for a short time, but her first report entailed an extremely dangerous mission: sneaking into Syria to report on the uprisings that began in March.
The country is notoriously dangerous for journalists, and foreign reporters have been banned by Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad. Ward managed to enter the country as a tourist, carrying a small camera. Her report airs in a three-part series, which started on Monday.
In an interview with TVNewser, she recounted the experience and explained how she avoided detection. "I was fortunate that I really did slip under the radar," she said.
Dressed in a blue burqa, Ward attended protests in a suburb outside of Damascus and the funeral of a 16-year old boy who was shot by government forces. She also interviewed opposition activists and wounded protesters.
Back in the studio, anchor Scott Pelley noted that Ward had traveled alone and reached out to an underground network of activists on her own. "It's incredibly challenging because all of the opposition activists who I was with are wanted by Assad's forces," Ward said. "Just outside the capital, there are checkpoints at every other block and if these activists get stopped at any one of those checkpoints, it means certain arrest."
Ward is the one of a handful of network correspondents who have reported from Syria in the past four years. Barbara Walters also landed a major scoop this week, interviewing Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad.