The CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley: Inside Syria

In November 2011, as Syria slid inexorably toward civil war, CBS News correspondent Clarissa Ward donned hijab-compliant clothing and entered the country posing as a tourist. With a small, disguised camera and no crew, she captured video for what became three remarkable Evening News reports. In the first, she interviews a defiant protestor shot and crippled by government security forces in Homs and attends the funeral of a 16-year-old boy shot the day before. Her video puts viewers shoulder-to-shoulder with the mourners. In the second report, she‘s taken blindfolded to meet near Damascus with members of the Free Syrian Army, military defectors with scarves wrapped around their faces and grenade launchers in their hands who tell her they simply couldn‘t fire on their civilian countrymen. In her third piece, Ward visits an improvised hospital where protesters can get treated for wounds and injuries without fear of being hauled off to jail, and she shows viewers how activists are hiding medical supplies for the all-out attacks they fear are coming. Her reporting is succinct and clear, and the video she shot—or had Syrians shoot of her as she delivered running commentary—is not only daring, it‘s often of high quality, demonstrating an important technical advance in undercover reporting. In acknowledgement of Ward‘s enterprise, courage and informed reporting, a Peabody Award is presented to The CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley: Inside Syria.