About This Report
This report was written by CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Steven Butler. CPJ’s multimedia producer Mustafa Hameed contributed research and reporting, and produced the accompanying documentary “Acts of Intimidation.” CPJ traveled to Karachi, Islamabad, Peshawar, Lahore, and Okara in February 2018, to meet with journalists, editors, and media groups.
Prior to joining CPJ in 2016, Butler served as executive director at the Institute of Current World Affairs, where he worked with institute fellows throughout the world, including in South and East Asia, and as senior editor and writer at the online magazine OZY. Butler lived and worked in Asia as a foreign correspondent for nearly 20 years, and was foreign editor at the Knight Ridder Washington Bureau.
Hameed is CPJ’s multimedia producer. Previously, he worked as a news editor and producer at ABC News in New York. Prior to that, Hameed served as a researcher for Pulitzer Prize-winning author Steve Coll, dean of Columbia Journalism School.
Cover image: Microphones from Pakistani media outlets are pictured on a desk at a press conference outside the Supreme Court in Islamabad. The country’s journalists say pressure from military and authorities is causing self-censorship. AFP/Aamir Qureshi