Umar Cheema

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Chishti abducted, beaten: Challenge for Pakistan

Ali Chishti, who writes for The Friday Times, has gone public in Islamabad with details of his abduction and beating last Friday, August 30. Chishti is making the rounds of TV talk shows describing how he was picked up in Karachi by uniformed police driving a police vehicle, blindfolded, switched to another police vehicle, taken…

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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…

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Attacks on the Press: CPJ Risk List

From conflict-ridden Syria to aspiring world leader Brazil, 10 nations on a downslope. By Karen Phillips

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CPJ
At a protest against the murder of a journalist in Sao Paulo, Brazil, a sign reads: "Enough of violence, exclusion and impunity." (AP/Dario Lopez-Mills)

Brazil, Pakistan, India fail test on journalist murders

Brazil, Pakistan, and India–three nations with high numbers of unsolved journalist murders–failed an important test last month in fighting the scourge of impunity. Delegates from the three countries took the lead in raising objections to a U.N. plan that would strengthen international efforts to combat deadly anti-press violence.

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CPJ awardee Natalya Radina.

Attacks on the Press in 2011: Profiles in Freedom

How does one negotiate the choice to stay and report potentially dangerous news, rather than take a less risky assignment, leave the profession, or flee the country? The recipients of the 2011 International Press Freedom Awards explain. By Kristin Jones

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A demonstrator holds a poster with the photo of slain Pakistani journalist Wali Khan Babar and the question, 'Why?' (AP/Mohammad Sajjad)

Attacks on the Press in 2011: Pakistani Media Look Inward

As journalists continue to be targeted, the government of Asif Ali Zardari has shown itself unable and unwilling to stand up for a free press. Whatever solutions exist will have to be found by people in the profession. By Bob Dietz

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Attacks on the Press in 2011: Pakistani Journalist Speaks Up

Pakistani reporter Umar Cheema speaks out on the climate of impunity that led to his being abducted and brutally assaulted for his work. (4:15) Read the Attacks on the Press 2011 country profile on Pakistan.

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A deeper reading: Umar Cheema on the Shahzad report

With the shooting of Mukarram Khan Aatif on Tuesday, the once high-profile case of Saleem Shahzad has almost been overtaken by events. The day before Aatif’s death, Umar Cheema had sent me a link to his analysis of the judicial inquiry into the killing of Saleem Shahzad.

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Pakistani journalists and CPJ award winners Najam Sethi and Jugnu Mohsin in 1999. (Saeed Khan/AFP)

More revelations of threats to Pakistani journalists

We released a statement Thursday–CPJ supports Pakistani journalists facing threats–about the decision of two Pakistani journalists to publicly announce the threats they had been receiving. Najam Sethi, editor of The Friday Times and host of a popular Urdu-language political program on Geo TV, and Jugnu Mohsin, also a Friday Times editor, said they had lived…

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Pakistan’s Hamid Mir publicizes a death threat

Geo TV’s most prominent television anchor, and one of the most prominent journalists in Pakistan, has just circulated a detailed email message of threats he has been receiving. Hamid Mir’s open, public response to the threats is a textbook case of how to handle the steady stream of intimidation that journalists face, not just in…

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