As the United States again teeters on the brink of war with Iraq, the former CNN senior executive producer who co-wrote the screenplay for the Golden Globe-nominated”Live From Baghdad”will visit West Virginia University later this month to discuss the need for increased media coverage of international events.

Robert Wiener, who authored the novel”Live From Baghdad,”will speak at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 29, in Room 459 of the WVU Business and Economics Building. He will serve as the inaugural speaker for the 2003 Ogden Newspapers Seminar Series, hosted by the WVU Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism.

The series brings nationally and internationally recognized journalists for Ogden Newspapers Visiting Professor George Espers class, which this year will focus on”Foreign Correspondence: Reporting the World Abroad and Finding the World in Your Community.”

Wiener was CNN s senior executive producer and covered the Gulf War in Iraq from August 1990 to January 1991. His speech,”From Murrow to Mediocrity: Part II,”will focus on corporate cuts in foreign news coverage and the ever-growing need for America to understand the impact of international events on local communities.

Wiener and his crew were the first to report live from behind enemy lines during the Gulf War. They watched from the ninth floor of the Al-Rashid Hotel in Baghdad as the United States began bombing Iraq.

“Were thrilled to have a journalist with Roberts talent and courage as a part of this very special class,” SOJ Dean Christine Martin said.

As senior executive producer, Wiener was responsible for on-site coverage of major international news events, from reports from Pakistan on the 2001 strikes against terror to the genocide in Rwanda to the fall of Saigon in 1975.

He has received many awards for his work, including three Emmys, a Peabody Award, a Sigma Delta Chi Award for television and spot reporting, the Kaplan Overseas Press Club Award, the RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award and three National Headliners Club awards.