Karachi : The Pakistan Press Foundation has awarded 19 journalists from across Pakistan fellowships to pursue investigative stories on a range of social, political and economic issues. The fellows were selected from a pool of over 150 applicants in a rigorous selection process conducted by a panel of 17 reporters and editors who evaluated their pitches. The fellows come from all four provinces of Pakistan as well as its Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir.
The group will be working with a coordinating editor and will participate in training workshops while producing their stories. The fellows have a minimum experience of three years working for print, television, radio and online media. The reports they produce will be published or broadcast by their own organizations.
The aim of the fellowship is to give mid-career journalists a chance to conduct in-depth exploration of a topic of their choice and in the process improve their investigative skills with more experienced mentors. This is the second cycle or batch of fellows in a three-year programme that started in 2017.
The PPF is implementing the fellowship in collaboration with Free Press Unlimited, a foundation based in the Netherlands that pursues media projects in 39 countries with the objective of supporting journalists to help people gain access to concrete, trustworthy and impartial news information.
For almost fifty years, PPF has worked for the improvement of professional skills, and in helping to raise journalists’ awareness on professional, social, political and human-rights issues. PPF is actively involved in promoting freedom of expression and ethical standards in Pakistani media. It was established in 1967 as a non-profit organization committed to the promotion of independent media in Pakistan.
The fellows of the second PPF Investigative Journalism Fellowships include Abdur Razzaq with Khyber News in Peshawar, Akhtar Hafeez with Sindh Express in Hyderabad, Amel Ghani with The News on Sunday in Lahore, Asad Khan Betini with The Frontier Post and Aaj TV in Quetta, Fawad Hasan with The Express Tribune in Karachi, Imran Mangi with Dunya TV in Quetta, Izhar Ullah with The Express Tribune in Peshawar, Junaid Nazeer with Jang in Bahawalpur, Manzoor Ali with Dawn in Peshawar, Mubashar Naqvi with The Financial Daily in Muzaffarabad, Nisar Ali with Kay2 in Ghanche, Rafiullah Mandokhail with Pakistan Observer in Zhob, Raja Kamran with Neo News in Karachi, Rehmat Ullah Khan with News Lens Pakistan in Islamabad, Rizwana Naqvi with Dawn, Karachi, Shah Khalid with Tribal News Network in Bajaur Agency, Fata, Shakila Ibrar with Voice of Pakistan in Islamabad, Shiraz Hasnat with Dawn News in Lahore and Yousuf Abid with Dunya in Multan.
