Umar Cheema is an investigative journalist for The News, the largest English-language newspaper in Pakistan. He was awarded the Daniel Pearl Journalism Fellowship in 2008, during which he worked at The New York Times. In September 2010, Cheema was abducted, beaten, purposely humiliated, photographed against his will and dumped six hours later outside Islamabad. Immediately after […]

Umar Cheema is an award winning investigative reporter for The News, the largest English-language newspaper in Pakistan. In September 2010, he was kidnapped, tortured, blindfolded and handcuffed, and finally dumped outside Islamabad by masked men, who warned him not to speak about the incident. After his release, Cheema immediately went on television to tell his […]

There has been a worrying spike in violence against journalists in Pakistan, specifically in the restive provinces of Swat and Baluchistan. On Sunday, 14 August, Muneer Shakir, a correspondent for Waqt News was gunned down on his way home, in the town of Khuzdar in Baluchistan. He died in hospital. Although Shakir had not reported […]

There has been a rash of attacks against media organisations in Pakistan’s Sindh province recently. In the last week of July, unknown persons attacked the offices of Geo, Jang, and the News in a number of cities, attacked staff members and damaged equipment. In a related development, copies of Jang and The News were burned […]