CNN appoints award-winning journalist to cover China

Award-winning CNN journalist David McKenzie is to take on a new position as an international correspondent based in Beijing.

McKenzie is moving to Beijing after five years as the international news network’s correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya, where he won international awards for his coverage of the African experience and reported from across the continent for all of CNN’s platforms.

“China is featured extensively in CNN’s international output and we are delighted to add him to our team covering this crucial and compelling story,” Parisa Khosravi, senior vice president of international newsgathering said.

McKenzie was the first international reporter to gain access to Sudan’s controversial oil fields to report on alleged pollution and was one of the first correspondents to uncover the threat of piracy off the coast of Somalia. 

Since joining CNN, McKenzie has interviewed many high-profile personalities and leaders including Nobel Prize winners Wangari Maathai and Desmond Tutu, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga and President Paul Kagame of Rwanda.

McKenzie joined CNN from UNICEF, where he served as a correspondent and producer with their Africa Services Unit. In that role, he reported from more than 30 countries in Africa, covering stories on the instability in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.