Profiles

Asal Abasian (they/them) is CPJ’s Researcher for Iran, a role they have held since March 2025. Prior to this, Asal joined CPJ in January 2023 as a part of the MENA team. They contribute to the BBC Persian Service and work as a freelance journalist with the Netherlands-based media outlet Radio Zamaneh. Before living in exile—first in Turkey and later…

Mohammed Othman joined CPJ as a Middle East and North Africa researcher, focusing on Gaza and the West Bank, in August 2024. He has worked in the media since 2009, specializing in investigative journalism, in addition to reporting for the regional press freedom group SKeyes.

Luna Safwan has worked on journalist assistance at CPJ since 2024. She is a former journalist, holistic safety trainer, and risk assessment expert. She previously worked as a safety trainer with IREX, Free Press Unlimited, and other international organizations. In 2013, she won the Samir Kassir Award for press freedom.

Ananya Bhasin joined CPJ as the Emergencies Associate in April 2023. Prior to joining CPJ, Ananya worked with survivors of gender-based violence as a Senior Advocate at Sakhi for South Asian Women, where she provided culturally sensitive safety planning, crisis response, and economic empowerment services.  She has previous experience in poverty law and food insecurity…

Zoe Simbolon joined CPJ as senior communications associate in October 2022. Throughout her career, Simbolon has contributed to campaigns for organizations advancing asylum seeker and refugee rights and mental health policy. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communications and a graduate certificate in human rights.

Amelia Evans joined CPJ in December 2023. An international human rights lawyer by training, she spent more than a decade as the executive director of The Shifting Power Project (formerly known as the Institute for Multi-Stakeholder Integrity), a nonprofit human rights organization focused on rectifying power imbalances and abuses caused by corporations. Over the last 15 years,…

John Otis, CPJ’s Andes correspondent for the Americas program, works as a reporter for NPR. He authored the 2010 book Law of the Jungle about U.S. military contractors kidnapped by Colombian rebels. He is based in Bogotá, Colombia

Abu Bakr Bashir is a Palestinian journalist from Gaza, where he covered news for the Wall Street Journal, NPR, and Japan’s JIJI PRESS. In 2019, he relocated with his family to London, where he worked for Qatar’s Al-Araby TV and the Palestinian Alghad TV channel before becoming London reporter for Egypt’s AlQahera News. He is covering the…