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: June edition

CPJ calls on reporters to share stories of being stopped at U.S. border CPJ has issued a call to journalists to share any difficulties they have had while crossing the U.S. border. We partnered with Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, in this project and have created a page on our website where journalists can submit…

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CPJ Insider: May 2018 edition

CPJ in Pakistan: ‘People don’t know where the lines are that they can’t cross’ In February, CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Steven Butler traveled to Pakistan with CPJ Multimedia Producer Mustafa Hameed to speak to journalists and press freedom advocates about the climate for media freedom in Pakistan. They traveled to Karachi, Islamabad, Peshawar, Lahore, and…

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CPJ Insider: April 2018 edition

“CPJ Insider,” which was recently renamed from “CPJ Highlights,” is CPJ’s monthly newsletter that brings you behind-the-scenes updates on CPJ’s work around the world.

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CPJ Highlights: March 2018 edition

CPJ’s global campaign to free the press CPJ believes all journalists should be able to report freely, without any fear of harassment or retaliation. But each day, all over the world, reporters, photographers, editors, and bloggers are imprisoned for their work. In December, CPJ published its annual prison census, which found that at least 262…

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CPJ Highlights: February edition

CPJ leads first-ever press freedom mission to the U.S. In January, CPJ and IFEX led an international mission of global press freedom groups to the United States. Representatives of CPJ, IFEX, Article 19, International Press Institute, Reporters Without Borders, and Index on Censorship traveled to Texas and Missouri, where they spoke with journalists about the…

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CPJ Highlights: Year-End Edition

There is no way to sugar coat it–this has been a terrible year for press freedom around the world. A record number of journalists are in jail. Violence remains stubbornly high. Political leaders who should be defending press freedom–including U.S. President Donald Trump–are instead vilifying journalists and undermining the role of the media. These challenges…

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CPJ’s 2017 International Press Freedom Awards

CPJ’s annual International Press Freedom Awards and benefit dinner honored courageous journalists from around the world on November 15, 2017, in New York City. The dinner was hosted by Christiane Amanpour, chief international correspondent for CNN and CPJ senior advisor. The 2017 dinner chairman was David Rhodes, president of CBS News. Actor and activist Meryl…

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CPJ Highlights: November edition

Speaking out against threats to press freedom in the US Montana Congressman Greg Gianforte, who body slammed a Guardian reporter during his election campaign this year, agreed to meet with CPJ in October. But the meeting–scheduled to last for half an hour–lasted only seven minutes. CPJ barely had enough time to suggest ways for the…

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CPJ Highlights: October edition

CPJ publishes report on press freedom in Cameroon On September 20, CPJ published a special report, called “Journalists Not Terrorists,” on Cameroon’s use of a broadly worded anti-terror law to arrest and threaten journalists. The legislation was put in place in 2014 as part of an effort to counter attacks by the extremist group Boko…

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CPJ Highlights: September edition

Press Freedom Tracker continues to document press freedom incidents in the U.S. “I’m really doing this to show you how damned dishonest these people are,” President Trump said during his August rally in Phoenix. “Truly dishonest people in the media and the fake media, they make up stories. … They don’t report the facts.”

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