Shazdeh Omari

Shazdeh Omari is CPJ's news editor. Former copy chief for The Village Voice, she has worked as a reporter and editor in the United States and Greece. Omari was born in Saudi Arabia and raised in Karachi, Pakistan, where she learned to read, speak, and write Urdu.

CPJ Insider: Year-end edition

Thank you for standing with us in our work protecting journalists around the world. Together, we will defend freedom of expression, democracy, and the public’s right to know. Here are some highlights of 2019, made possible only with your support: Journalist killings dropped sharply in 2019, though imprisoned tally remained high The number of journalists…

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CPJ Insider, November: Face-to-face with Pakistani border control and a northern Syria crisis

On a strange ‘stop list,’ CPJ staffer is refused entry to Pakistan The man at the Lahore airport customs point looked puzzled. Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator, was holding a U.S. passport with a valid, newly issued visa to enter Pakistan. But the computer showed he was on a “stop list” from the Interior…

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CPJ Insider October 2019: Khashoggi’s murder anniversary, Sulzberger’s warning, threats to women journalists unpacked

CPJ marks one year since Khashoggi’s murder with court action What did the U.S. government know, and when did it know it? As CPJ enters year two of advocacy to secure justice for Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist who was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018, these are central questions.

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CPJ Insider: September 2019 edition

Putting First Amendment values in the spotlight CPJ has partnered with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the Los Angeles Times to produce LA Press Freedom Week, five days of programming that will engage the public and the journalistic community in and around Los Angeles in a conversation about today’s challenges to press freedom and…

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CPJ Insider: August 2019 edition

CPJ awardee Zaffar Abbas: The Pakistani government has decided ‘to kill journalism’ Pressure campaigns by press freedom groups are a vital line of defense against a rapidly deteriorating environment for independent media in Pakistan under Prime Minister Imran Khan, said Zaffar Abbas, the editor of Dawn and CPJ’s 2019 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award winner,…

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CPJ’s 2019 International Press Freedom Awards

CPJ’s annual International Press Freedom Awards and benefit dinner will honor courageous journalists from around the world on Thursday, November 21, 2019, in New York City. This year’s dinner will be chaired by Laurene Powell Jobs and Peter Lattman of the Emerson Collective. The evening will be hosted by Shep Smith. Press Release | Video…

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Zaffar Abbas

CPJ is honored to present its 2019 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award, for extraordinary and sustained achievement in the cause of press freedom, to Pakistani editor Zaffar Abbas. Abbas is the editor of Dawn, Pakistan’s leading daily newspaper. He has an extensive career in journalism, starting in 1981, when he worked as a junior reporter…

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Lucía Pineda Ubau and Miguel Mora, Nicaragua

CPJ is honored to present its 2019 International Press Freedom Award to Nicaraguan-Costa Rican journalist Lucía Pineda Ubau and Nicaraguan journalist Miguel Mora. Lucía Pineda Ubau has worked as a reporter for more than two decades for Nicaraguan outlets including TV Noticias and the news program “22/22,” which she co-founded. She first worked at 100%…

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Neha Dixit, India

CPJ is honored to present its 2019 International Press Freedom Award to Indian journalist Neha Dixit. Neha Dixit, an award-winning freelance reporter, has covered politics, gender, and social justice in print, TV, and online media for more than a decade. She began her career at Tehelka magazine and then joined the special investigation team at…

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Patrícia Campos Mello, Brazil

CPJ is honored to present its 2019 International Press Freedom Award to Brazilian journalist Patrícia Campos Mello. Patrícia Campos Mello is an award-winning reporter and columnist at the daily Folha de S. Paulo, one of Brazil’s biggest news outlets, and an experienced international correspondent. She has reported on human rights and public health stories in…

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