No justice 3 years after Wali Khan Babar murder
Three years have passed since the murder of Geo TV journalist Wali Khan Babar in Karachi. While no justice has been found in Babar’s case, his death has not been forgotten. Journalists Beena Sarwar, Umar Cheema, and Malik Siraj Akbar along with CPJ’s Bob Dietz commemorated the anniversary of Babar’s death on Monday during a…
Roots of Impunity
Sidebar: Verbatim: Threats, Promises, and Fears “No half-hearted police measures or words of consolation from the highest offices in the land will suffice in the aftermath of the brutal treatment meted out to journalist Umar Cheema of The News.” —Editorial in the newspaper Dawn condemning the September 2010 abduction and beating of Cheema. Intelligence agents were suspected in…
Roots of Impunity
3. Intimidation, Manipulation, and Retribution A couple of years ago, Hamid Mir, Najam Sethi, Umar Cheema, and other prominent figures in the news media began going public with the threats they were receiving from intelligence agencies. It was a risky calculation, but the silence, they reasoned, encouraged intimidation and allowed impunity to persist.
Tax story shows investigative reporting alive in Pakistan
Umar Cheema, a CPJ International Press Freedom Award winner in 2011, was a strong runner-up for this year’s Osborn Elliott Prize for Excellence in Journalism on Asia, awarded for the last 10 years by the Asia Society in New York. Umar’s report, Representation Without Taxation, analyzed the tax returns of Pakistani members of parliament for…
‘Where is the state?’ asks Pakistani journalist under threat
Since making me aware of threats to Hamid Mir on December 20, Umar Cheema and I have been encouraging Pakistani journalists we know who are under threat to step forward with their own experiences. Ghulamaddin, producer for Samaa TV in Karachi who broke the story of students held in chains at a seminary, is coming…
Journalists in Pakistan remain under threat
New York, October 25, 2010–Pakistan must take immediate steps to rein in police and government agencies that threaten reporters. Two cases in recent days–those of journalists Hafiz Imran and Umar Cheema–demonstrate how reporting on stories that are critical of the authorities can bring officials’ wrath down on reporters.
Men in police uniforms abduct and beat Pakistani journalist
New York, September 8, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Pakistani government to thoroughly investigate the kidnapping and beating of Umar Cheema, a correspondent of the English-language daily The News in Islamabad. Men in police uniforms seized Cheema while he was driving in a suburb of Islamabad on Saturday, according to local and international media reports.
Pakistani journalist Shahid Aslam arrested in leak investigation
New York, January 17, 2023 – Pakistan authorities must immediately and unconditionally release journalist Shahid Aslam and allow the media to freely and independently report on military officials, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday. On January 13, Federal Investigation Agency officers in Lahore arrested Aslam, a special correspondent for the privately owned broadcaster BOL…
CPJ, international journalists express deep concern over deteriorating press freedom climate in Nicaragua, call for release of detained reporters
CPJ and more than 200 international journalists write to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega to express deep concern over the recent escalation of aggression against media outlets and journalists covering civil unrest and documenting human rights abuses by police and paramilitary groups.