Peter Arnett, known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Vietnam War and most recently a controversial interview with an Iraqi television station during the early days of Gulf War II, will speak to West Virginia University P.I. Reed School of Journalism students and the public Thursday, Feb. 17.

Arnett will speak as a part of the Ogden Newspapers Seminar Series hosted by Dr. George Esper, the Ogden Newspapers Visiting Professor, at 7 p.m. that day in Room 21 White Hall. His speech,”From Vietnam to Iraq: A Changing Media World,”will focus on how media coverage of war has evolved over the last half of the 20th century and into the 21st century.

“We are thrilled to have someone of Peter’s caliber come here and speak to our students,”said Acting Dean Maryanne Reed.”Peter’s experience as an international correspondent covering Vietnam and the two Gulf Wars is fascinating and relevant to students contemplating careers in war reporting and global journalism.”

Arnett has spent a lifetime covering wars and international crises for major American news organizations.

Forty years ago as a young news correspondent, Arnett began covering the Vietnam War for the Associated Press. That assignment would last 13 years, from the buildup of U.S. military advisers in the early 1960s to the fall of Saigon in 1975. Arnett wrote more than 3,000 news stories from Vietnam for the AP, mainly eyewitness accounts of major battles between American forces and the North Vietnamese army. He received a Pulitzer Prize and many other awards for his Vietnam coverage.

Arnett is best known for his live television coverage from Baghdad during the first Gulf War in 1991. His coverage is credited with making CNN a household name. He also won a television Emmy.

The award-winning journalist volunteered to help out the NBC TV network and MSNBC in daily news coverage after the network’s crew left Baghdad at the beginning of Gulf War II.. That coverage came to an end after Arnett gave a controversial interview to Iraqi TV. However, Arnett continued to cover the war for the London Daily Mirror newspaper and several Arab, European and Asian TV networks, and remained in Baghdad after the war to write a book about his experiences.

Arnett has received 57 major journalism awards for his reporting over the years, and has received honorary doctorate degrees from universities in the United States and Brazil. His autobiography,”Live from the Battlefield,”published by Simon&Schuster in 1994, received much critical praise and was named a New York Times”Book of the Year.”

He is currently living much of his time in Baghdad, writing magazine articles and a book about the fall of the Baath regime.