Zeena Saifi is a Multiplatform Producer based in CNN’s Middle Eastern hub, Abu Dhabi. She tells stories across CNN’s television outlets and on its industry-leading digital platforms.

Saifi produces and writes on the network’s flagship Middle East programme ‘Connect the World with Becky Anderson’, and cultivates the very best of what’s on the television show for delivery across platforms. She also imagines, pitches, and executes her own vision for various multi-platform projects, which often involves travel and field work.

The Jordanian-native focuses on news and features across the Middle East, and has played a vital role in CNN’s regional coverage of stories such as the August 2020 Beirut port blast, the May 2021 war between Hamas and Israel, Joe Biden’s first presidential trip to the Middle East in July 2022 and the devastating earthquake that struck Turkey and Northern Syria in 2023.

Saifi was also part of CNN’s Emmy award-winning coverage of Turkey’s military incursion into Syria in October 2019.

She has also led production across interviews with high-profile and newsmaking guests, including an exclusive interview with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan a month after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and an exclusive interview with Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati a week after the formation of his government.

Saifi was nominated as an inaugural member of CNN International’s Diversity Council in September 2021. The council meets monthly with senior management to discuss ways to strengthen editorial content, build on employee engagement and workplace culture, and improve diverse representation across CNN’s platforms.

Saifi joined CNN in 2017. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Broadcast Digital Journalism from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and is fluent in Arabic and English.