The former director news at Aaj TV is the first Pakistani to receive the biennial award, which honours journalists who have “displayed exceptional commitment to quality reporting and freedom of the press, often under harrowing circumstances.”
The six other recipients include Sincha Dimara, news editor at Inside PNG; Tom Grundym, editor-in-chief and founder of Hong Kong Free Press; Alan Miller, founder of the News Literacy Project in Washington DC; Soe Myint, editor-in-chief and managing director at Mizzima Media Group in Yangon, Myanmar; John Nery, columnist and editorial consultant at Rappler in Manila; and Ana Marie Pamintuan, editor-in-chief at The Philippine Star.
In February, Siddiqi said in a statement on X that he was “humbled” at being named as one of the “Journalists of Courage and Impact” this year.
According to the four-day conference’s agenda, Siddiqi also spoke at a panel titled ‘The Whole World is Voting — Reporting in a Global Election Year’. Alongside him on the panel were seasoned journalists from Taiwan, Indonesia, India, South Korea and the Philippines.
Prior to that, he was the editor of The Express Tribune, and has also served as the president of the EWC’s alumni association in Karachi.
He is also a fellow of the Center for Democratic Development and Rule of Law at Stanford University and a senior non-resident fellow with the Atlantic Council, according to the EWC.
The Centre for Excellence in Journalism (CEJ) at the Institute of Business Administration and the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at the Poynter Institute, United States, have signed a partnership to train journalists in Pakistan, it emerged on Monday.
The five-month project, which aims to build fact-checking skills of journalists in the country, includes both self-directed courses and live trainings, the CEJ said in a press release.
It noted that the project would build the capacity of media organisations to "verify and fact-check information before it is published, helping raise reporting standards at a time when the fake-news phenomenon is becoming a massive problem"
CEJ Director Kamal Siddiqi said the centre was "very excited" to partner with the network at Poynter which was "respected the world over". The project would "raise standards of journalism by inculcating a culture of news verification", he added
IFCN Director Baybars Örsek said the network's objective was to provide Pakistani journalists with the "essential know-how on building a fact-checking unit".
These units would provide reliable and accurate information to the public, especially amid the coronavirus pandemic and vaccination campaigns, he said.
"We have seen that fact-checkers have been instrumental in helping consumers and disseminators of information during times of uncertainty," Örsek added.
According to the press release, the IFCN is dedicated to bringing together fact-checkers worldwide and support fact-checking initiatives by promoting best practices and exchanges in the field.
The IFCN monitors trends, formats and policymaking about fact-checking worldwide, it added.
