Christine Ockrent

Christine Ockrent — Biography

Christine Ockrent is a Belgian journalist and television presenter, born on 24 April 1944 in Brussels, who built most of her career in France. After studying at Sciences Po, she rose to prominence in French media and, starting in September 1981, became one of the first women to anchor Antenne 2's evening news broadcast.

From 1992 she hosted political programs on France 3, and she led the newsweekly L'Express as its editor from 1994 to 1996. Between February 2008 and May 2011 she served as deputy chief executive of Audiovisuel extérieur de la France, the body overseeing France's external broadcasting. In 1979, following the Islamic Revolution in Iran, she interviewed former prime minister Amir-Abbas Hoveyda in Qasr Prison, an interview that turned out to be his last before his execution.

Ockrent also appeared on screen, taking a role in the 1984 film Le Bon Plaisir. Over her career she was made an Officer of the Legion of Honour and of the French National Order of Merit, and received Belgium's Order of Leopold.