Chris Livesay Joins CBS News As Correspondent Based In Rome

Ted Johnson
·2 min read

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Chris Livesay has joined the staff of CBS News as a foreign correspondent based in Rome, where he already has been reporting on the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy.

Livesay has previously reported around the world for outlets including NBC News, PBS NewsHour, PBS Frontline and NPR News.

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He began reporting for CBS News at the height of the outbreak in Italy.

In March, Livesay was the first reporter for an American TV network to go inside an ICU in Italy, when the country was at the peak of its struggle with the pandemic and a shortage of medical supplies. He also reported from northern Italy, where cemeteries could not keep up with the number of deaths, and this week reported from Venice on how nature is actually rebounding amid empty streets and canals.

In 2018, he was the first American TV correspondent to report from Libya in almost a year, and had to flee the country after reporting on trafficking and torture. He and videographer and producer Alessandro Pavone described their experiences in a story for PBS Newshour.

“It was some of the hardest reporting each of us has ever encountered. If we could do it all over again, we would avoid Tripoli completely,” the wrote. “The security risks are simply too great for freelance reporters, and the government obstruction is overwhelming. Locals in Tripoli are also incredibly shy of cameras, often hostile.”

Livesay also was among the first TV journalists to report from Mosul on the front lines of the Iraqi military’s push to remove ISIS. He got his start in journalism by volunteering at KJZZ in Phoenix, an NPR affiliate, and later filed reports for All Things Considered and Morning Edition.

 

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