Alex Platt

Supervising Photojournalist

Alex Platt is an award-winning Photojournalist based in London.
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Alex Platt Profile
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Left - Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al-Khulaifi during an interview with CNN. Right - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looks on as the US Secretary of State gives statements to the media inside The Kirya, which houses the Israeli Defence Ministry, after their meeting in Tel Aviv on October 12, 2023. Blinken arrived in a show of solidarity after Hamas's surprise weekend onslaught in Israel, an AFP correspondent travelling with him reported. He is expected to visit Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as Washington closes ranks with its ally that has launched a withering air campaign against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. (Photo by Jacquelyn Martin / POOL / AFP) (Photo by JACQUELYN MARTIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
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Qatar sent millions to Gaza for years – with Israel’s backing. Here’s what we know about the controversial deal
Dec 12, 2023
Qatar has come under fire by Israeli officials, American politicians and media outlets for sending hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Gaza, which is governed by the Palestinian militant group. But all that happened with Israel’s blessing.
Released Palestinian prisoners react from inside a vehicle after leaving the Israeli military prison, Ofer, amid a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank November 26, 2023. REUTERS/Ammar Awad TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Ammar Awad/Reuters
Release of Palestinian prisoners sheds light on controversial Israeli justice system in the occupied West Bank
Dec 8, 2023
The release of Palestinian prisoners by Israel, as part of a deal with Hamas to free hostages held in Gaza, has put a spotlight on a controversial practice that allows Palestinians to be detained for indefinite periods without trial or charge.
RSF vehicles are attacked in drone strikes which a Ukrainian military source said was 'likely' conducted by Ukraine's special services.
Obtained by CNN
Exclusive: Ukraine’s special services ‘likely’ behind strikes on Wagner-backed forces in Sudan, a Ukrainian military source says
Sep 20, 2023
Speaking to CNN, a Ukrainian military source described the operation as the work of a “non-Sudanese military.” Pressed on whether Kyiv was behind the attacks, the source would only say that “Ukrainian special services were likely responsible.”
There's not enough food to go around the Renk camp, Darhok says, partly due to a lack of international aid.
CNN
Children die daily at a South Sudan border camp while they wait for international aid
Jun 19, 2023
His worn trousers bagging over the top of borrowed rubber rain boots, Kueaa Darhok attempts to make his way through the sucking mud and deep-set puddles, on his way to the communal feeding kitchen at the center of the transit camp he now calls home.
03 Iraqi Kurdistan
Alex Platt/CNN
From protester to fighter: Fleeing Iran’s brutal crackdown to take up arms over the border
Oct 18, 2022
A teenage dissident trailed behind a group of smugglers in the borderlands of western Iran. For three days, Rezan trekked a rocky mountain range and walked through minefields along a winding path forged by seasoned smugglers to circumnavigate the country’s heavily armed Revolutionary Guards. It was a trip too dangerous for respite of much more than a few stolen moments at a time.
IMG 3135 Smerch embedded into BMW near Lilia's apartment
Alex Platt/CNN
Exclusive: Russian general who oversaw atrocities in Syria led cluster bomb attacks on civilians in Ukraine
May 14, 2022
CNN has identified the rocket artillery brigade that launched the cluster munitions attack in residential districts of Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv. The Russian general who led the attacks also oversaw the siege of Syria’s eastern Aleppo and the ratcheting up of cluster bomb attacks in the rebel-held territory.

About

Alex Platt is an award-winning Photojournalist based in London.

Joining CNN in 2006, Platt’s work has documented the fall of the Arab Spring and the rise of the Islamic State, the response to international terrorism and the resultant toll on its many victims.

In 2017, Platt traveled to Libya with Senior International Correspondent Nima Elbagir and producer Raja Razek to investigate reports of African migrants being sold at slave auctions – some for as little as $400. “People for Sale” sparked a global outcry and was instrumental in the passing of United Nations sanctions against six men identified as traffickers by the U.N. Libya Sanctions Committee.

The team’s report was recognized with a 2018 George Polk Award in the Foreign Television Reporting category, the Royal Television Society (RTS) Award for Scoop of the Year, a Golden Nymph Award in the Best TV News Item category at the Monte Carlo TV Festival, the Television Trophy at the Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Awards and two Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) awards – The Daily Journalism category and the Judges Impact award.

The report in Libya and a subsequent investigation into child labor in the Republic of The Congo contributed to the 2019 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award given to Nima Elbagir in the investigative category.

In 2019 Platt was part of a CNN team that won plaudits for their year-long investigation into Father Luke Delft: “The case of the predator priest”, a Belgian pedophile priest who was sent to work for an aid organization in Africa, helping vulnerable families, even though his Catholic order knew of his past criminal conviction for abusing children years earlier in Europe.

Platt began his career in TV Broadcasting in 1996 as a freelancer, focusing solely on news after the September 11 attacks and the subsequent invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and was a near-constant presence in Baghdad during the seminal moments of the long occupation of Iraq.

Despite bearing witness to many iconic world events of the last 20 years, it’s the smaller personal moments, documenting the lives of people when they are at their lowest and in need of understanding and sensitivity that resonate the most for Platt, this is where his brand of photojournalism really shines through.